Team Sky won the Team Time Trial on the opening stage of the Vuelta a Espana.
The twenty two teams had to complete a 27.8km team time trial from Balneario de Laias thermal resort to the Parque Nautico de Castrelo with Bora-Argon 18 first down the start ramp at 5.26pm local time.
With Britain's Scott Thwaites amongst the riders, Bora-Argon 18 went down the ramp and finished in a time of 31.34. At four minute intervals, the other twenty one teams set off and the German team kept their lead until Etixx Quick Step finished some thirty five seconds quicker in 30:59.
Orica-BikeExchange looked nippy on the course and took over the lead with a new fastest time at the finish line of 30:43 but the likes of Movistar, Team Sky and Tinkoff with Alberto Contador were on the road.
Alejandro Valverde brought Movistar across the finish line first in 30:37 and in came Team Sky led by Peter Kennaugh in 30:37 to win by mere fractions of a second.
Former British champion Peter Kennaugh was declared the race leader and he told the Team Sky press office:
"I'm over the moon to be in the jersey but it was definitely not planned! Yesterday I was just another rider at the Vuelta and now I've just been thrown into the red jersey. It's pretty surreal at the minute.
"Going into the stage I'd have been happy if we'd finished within touching distance of first place. In the team everyone is coming from different races and objectives in the season - guys coming from Rio for instance and me coming back from injury.
"I think starting off hard (was key). Sometimes we're a bit cautious and riders want to start off easier - but at the end of the day a team time trial is not supposed to be easy. You can't just give away 10 seconds in the first 5km as you'll never get it back. You can't be scared to fail and you can't be scared to hurt yourself - which is exactly what we did.
"I didn't have the best April and then I was getting back in form into May. So I was obviously a bit gutted to break my collarbone when I did. But it's a funny old sport and funny old life with its swings and roundabouts, peaks and troughs. I've trained really really hard and I've done everything for the bike the last two months. At Burgos I felt really good and I knew I was coming into form again.
"I've tried to come into this race a bit more confident and take it on a bit."
Source: DSG
