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Vuelta a Espana: Team Sky win stage one team time trial

Team Sky, Vuelta a Espana, team time trial
Image: Team Sky celebrate victory in the Vuelta a Espana team time trial

Chris Froome made significant early gains on rival Alberto Contador by helping Team Sky to victory on stage one's team time trial at the Vuelta a Espana.

The British squad stopped the clock on a flat, 27.8km course in 30min 37sec, which was a fraction of a second faster than runners-up Movistar and six seconds ahead of third-placed Orica-BikeExchange.

The result means Froome and Movistar's Nairo Quintana are level on time, but fellow pre-race favourite Contador is already 52 seconds adrift after his Tinkoff team could only finish a disappointing eighth.

Vuelta a Espana guide
Vuelta a Espana guide

Stage-by-stage companion to the race

Of the other overall contenders, Orica-BikeExchange pair Esteban Chaves and Simon Yates sustained only minor losses to Froome and Quintana, but Steven Kruijswijk's LottoNL-Jumbo team crossed the line 28 seconds down and Louis Meintjes' Lampre-Merida finished 2min 8sec back in last place.

Peter Kennaugh was Team Sky's first rider over the finish line and will wear the race's leader's red jersey on Sunday's second stage.

Team Sky, Vuelta a Espana, team time trial
Image: Peter Kennaugh leads Team Sky to victory

Kennaugh said: "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."

Contador added: "To start almost a minute from direct rivals is more than I imagined. It's a big deficit. There are still 20 stages to go and we will try to reduce the gap day by day."

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Team Sky were eight seconds ahead of Movistar at the first intermediate time split, after 9.4km, but the Spanish squad then cut their deficit to six seconds by the 18.2km checkpoint and looked to have done enough to win when they beat previous leaders Orica-BikeExchange's finishing time.

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Their plight looked even better when Froome became slightly distanced by his Team Sky team-mates in the final 500m, but the Tour de France winner dug deep to catch back up and snatch stage victory by the smallest of margins.

Stage two takes the riders 159km from Ourense to Baiona and should end in a sprint. Find out more about the route in our race guide.

Stage one result

1 Team Sky, 30:37
2 Movistar, same time
3 Orica-BikeExchange, +6sec
4 BMC Racing, +7
5 Etixx - Quick-Step, +22
6 LottoNL-Jumbo, +28
7 Trek-Segafredo, +50
8 Cannondale-Drapac, +52
9 Tinkoff, same time
10 Bora-Argon 18, +57

General classification

1 Peter Kennaugh (GB) Team Sky, 30:37
2 Salvatore Puccio (Ita) Team Sky, same time
3 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky, st
4 Leopold Konig (Cze) Team Sky, st
5 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, st
6 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, st
7 Jonathan Castroviejo (Esp) Movistar, st
8 Ruben Fernandez (Esp) Movistar, st
9 Jose Joaquin Rojas (Esp) Movistar, st
10 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, st
Selected others
14 Simon Yates (GB) Orica-BikeExchange, +6sec
15 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-BikeExchange, st
50 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff, +52

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