The opening group time trial on the 2023 Vuelta a España provided a dramatic begin to the final Grand Tour of the season, with a number of crashes and defending champion Remco Evenepoel calling the stage “super-dangerous”.
Amid complaints across the circumstances and course itself, the preparations for riders returning to their group buses additionally attracted criticism with Lotto–Dstny’s Thomas De Gendt describing a treacherous journey following the stage end.
“We had to return to the bus by heavy site visitors and at nighttime with out lights. Whole of 6km,” the Belgian rider defined on Twitter.
Followers on the race additionally shared movies of riders returning after the stage end in full darkness with no lights, a lapse in security concerns that might usually land riders with fines from race organisers.
It was very darkish when Evenepoel arrived at his bus. pic.twitter.com/gybLDzhFFHAugust 26, 2023
De Gendt’s feedback got here in reply to a important evaluation of the stage from CPA (Cyclistes Professionnels Associés) president Adam Hansen.
“My checklist of things to submit for modifications is getting longer after right now’s TTT,” Hansen stated on Twitter. “Historically, the Vuelta has at all times had these late begins to have the rostrum dwell on the information.
“Nevertheless, this was the primary time with the present climate scenario, creating very poor visibility…… one thing that was not thought-about earlier than…. These riders would usually be fined, for driving at nighttime with out lights on. Not setting a very good instance to the youthful technology.”
The CPA performs a task in assessing the protection of race preparations, and Hansen met with some criticism on social media for the dearth of foresight across the stage timings and circumstances.
“To be trustworthy, the primary guys began in good “raining” circumstances. So, the race has began. From there, it is extra the UCI and Organiser, underneath present ruling, has the management,” he wrote in his defence.
“CPA could not do a lot due to the scenario I famous above… I even have learnt right now that late begin instances usually are not an issue, solely when there’s heavy cloud cowl.”
The stage itself noticed a number of crashes and the race’s first abandon as Ineos Grenadiers’ Laurens De Plus crashed closely throughout the group’s journey and left the race in an ambulance. It was later revealed that he suffered accidents to his hip.
The stage was gained by Crew dsm-firmenich in a end result that has put Lorenzo Milesi within the race chief’s crimson jersey, whereas common classification favourites misplaced small margins of time within the general standings. Remco Evenepoel’s Soudal-Quickstep group had been solely six seconds behind the stage winners, whereas Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič misplaced 32 seconds with Jumbo-Visma.
Stage 2 sees the riders start in Mataró and journey to an uphill end in Barcelona, which is more likely to reorder the very high of the final classification.