UAE Emirates-XRG beats Visma | Lease a Bike in thrilling Vuelta team time trial, but Vingegaard reclaims red jersey

After the start and opening stages in Italy and part of stage four in France, the Vuelta finally returned to Spain on Wednesday. Following Tuesday’s stage, won by Ben Turner (INEOS Grenadiers), the peloton flew across to the land of sunshine and tapas. Because of the transfer, the riders only began the fifth stage late in the day.

The first team didn’t roll off the start ramp in Figueres until after 4:30 PM (local time), with Lotto opening proceedings. On the program: a 24.1 km battle against the clock, in team formation. Five teams had to start with seven riders instead of eight due to early withdrawals: Visma | Lease a Bike, Groupama-FDJ, Soudal Quick-Step, Movistar, and Burgos-BH.

With a time of 25 minutes and 53 seconds, Lotto set the first finishing mark, averaging just under 56 km/h. Conditions were favorable on this sunny Wednesday. Around the same time, Jayco AlUla and Lidl-Trek also got underway. Two more teams with serious ambitions for both the stage victory and the general classification.

Of the early starters, few could get close to Lotto’s mark. Alpecin-Deceuninck, Intermarché-Wanty, and Picnic PostNL all fell short. Lidl-Trek, however, was riding fast. At both the first and second intermediate checkpoints, the German-American squad posted the fastest times.

The time trial wasn’t completely smooth for Lidl-Trek, though, as Carlos Verona misjudged a corner. By that point - just past the second intermediate - the German-American team had already lost a rider, and would have to complete the final stretch with six. With 2.5 kilometers to go, they were down to just four riders, which still carried some risk.

Risk or no risk, Lidl-Trek powered to the hot seat with a time of 25 minutes and 35 seconds. That meant they were 18 seconds faster than Lotto. By then, Jayco AlUla had also crossed the line, though with a disappointing time. The Australian team had to concede more than 30 seconds to Lidl-Trek.

For Movistar, which had to start with seven riders, things didn’t get off to a great start either. Orluis Aular misjudged a corner and ended up in the grass. Fortunately, the Venezuelan was able to rejoin.

Then it was time for another wait, but with INEOS Grenadiers now underway, another team with serious ambitions for the stage win had entered the arena. At the first intermediate check, the British squad was ten seconds faster than Lidl-Trek, suggesting a strong start from Egan Bernal’s team.

Team time trials often produce bizarre situations, and that was the case again on Wednesday. The Israel-Premier Tech riders were held up in the middle of their time trial by people standing in the road waving flags. A bizarre scene, in which several riders were forced to put a foot down.

Meanwhile, Q36.5 limited the damage well by finishing just 13 seconds slower than Lidl-Trek. Despite Aular’s earlier mistake, Movistar slotted in between with a solid ride. Decathlon AG2R finished just two-tenths of a second slower than Movistar, which earned them a virtual third place.

INEOS had started fast but couldn’t match Lidl-Trek’s time. They had to give up seven seconds, though Bernal kept the overall losses to a minimum. At that point, INEOS held a virtual second place.

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe had also started by then, though they weren’t shown much on camera. When the footage did cut to them, Matteo Sobrero was seen crashing hard. On a straight section of road, where speeds exceeded 60 kilometers per hour, the Italian hit the tarmac really hard.

With UAE Emirates-XRG, Visma | Lease a Bike, and Groupama-FDJ all out on course, the final top teams had begun. At the first intermediate check, the Emirati team matched INEOS’s time and was three seconds faster than their Dutch rival. Lidl-Trek’s finish time was still the fastest, as Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe came up three seconds short at the line.

At the second split, UAE lost five seconds to Lidl-Trek’s time. Visma | Lease a Bike, on the other hand, suddenly dropped 18 seconds — only tenth-fastest at the second checkpoint. That was a steep decline, and the smiles from the Lidl-Trek riders in the hot seat only got wider.

But that joy turned out to be premature, as UAE delivered a top time and took over the hot seat. The Emirati squad was nine seconds faster than Lidl-Trek, and João Almeida and Juan Ayuso moved one second ahead of Giulio Ciccone in the general classification. That potentially meant the red jersey for Ayuso, although the final times of Visma | Lease a Bike and Groupama-FDJ still had to come in.

In the end, they didn’t take the stage win, but Visma | Lease a Bike did succeed in putting Jonas Vingegaard into the red jersey. The Dutch squad finished second, eight seconds behind UAE, but the red jersey was a consolation. Groupama-FDJ couldn’t beat the time either, meaning David Gaudu lost his leader’s jersey.