Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) wins stage 1 in Malaga, Vuelta a Espana.

Rohan Dennis (BMC) smashes opening Vuelta a Espana Individual Time Trial as  expected to win the opening stage in Málaga, Spain. 

His stage win also nets him the red leader’s jersey of the race. The Australian beat Michal Kwiatowski (Team Sky) into second place by six seconds, as Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal) completed the podium with seven seconds down.

How it unfolded

The opening time trial of the 2018 Vuelta a España was the race's first opening TT since 2009, and marked the third time the Spanish Grand Tour had ever started in Málaga. Previous starts saw Alex Zülle take the then-golden leader's jersey back in 2000, while CSC triumphed in the 2006 Vuelta opening TTT.

It would be the only chance for the rouleurs to impress for over two weeks, with no other tests against the clock coming until stage 16's TT in Cantabria. The time trial (don't call it a prologue – that label only applies to courses under 8km in length) featured largely flat, wide roads on a not particularly technical course, and took in the beachfront with a small drag midway through.

Top Ten General Classification

1, Rohan Dennis (Australia) BMC Racing Team 0:09:39,
 2, Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) Team Sky0:00:06,
3, Victor Campenaerts (Belgium) Lotto Soudal 0:00:07, 4, Nelson Oliveira (Portugal) Movistar Team 0:00:17,
5, Dylan van Baarle (Netherland) Team Sky 0:00:20,
 6, Alessandro De Marchi (Italy) BMC Racing Team 0:00:21,
 7, Jonathan Castroviejo (Spain) Team Sky,
8, Simon Geschke (Germany) Team Sunweb, 
9, Ion Izagirre (Spain) Bahrain-Merida0:00:22,
10, Wilco Kelderman (Netherland) Team Sunweb