PRIMOZ ROGLIC WON the opening stage of the Vuelta a Espana with Ireland’s Dan Martin making a powerful start to finish in third, a second behind the stage victor.

With bonus seconds applied, Roglic takes a five-second lead over second-placed Richard Carapaz while Martin is a further two seconds back in the general standings.

Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome was dropped even before the final ascent, while still 18km from home. That left little hope Froome could get back on come the more challenging final climb of the Arrate, and he ended the day having conceded 11 minutes.

Roglic, the defending champion, is desperate to make up for his disappointment at the Tour de France, where he lost the yellow jersey to fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar last month.

This mountainous stage was an unusually brutal way to open a Grand Tour, but this had been intended as stage four following a planned start in Utrecht which fell victim to the pandemic.

And so instead it was straight on to the climbs, causing major splits amongst the overall contenders for red.

An attack from Roglic’s Jumbo-Visma team-mate Sepp Kuss inside the final five kilometres made a decisive split, with the likes of Carapaz, Martin and Hugh Carthy following but Tom Dumoulin and Alejandro Valverde among those left behind.

After they crested the climb EF Education First’s Carthy struck out for glory on the short descent to the finish but could not distance his rivals and it was Roglic that made the winning move as they passed under the flamme rouge.