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Vuelta 2017, Stage 1: Nîmes - Nîmes 13,7 km (TTT)

Vuelta a Espana 2017 starts with the usual TTT, this time on city roads. The route looks fairly technical for a team time trial with a few difficult bends in the first half. I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of teams mess it up and lose big chunks of time.

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Panflat profile. Don't be fooled by the stupid KOM.
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Fernando Escartin commentary: The Nîmes time trial will be very technical: the teams will have to ride through the streets in the old part of the city, right through the heart of historical buildings. The key will lie in being completely in sync from the very beginning, maintaining a very high speed and making sure that each and every rider does his job well in each section of the stage.

Weather: http://www.meteofrance.com/previsions-meteo-france/nimes/30000
Should be sunny and hot throughout the day.

Starting times:

1 Manzana Postobon 17:30:00
2 Lotto-Soudal 17:34:00
3 Dimension Data 17:38:00
4 Cannondale-Drapac 17:42:00
5 Aqua Blue Sport 17:46:00
6 FDJ 17:50:00
7 Bora-Hansgrohe 17:54:00
8 Cofidis 17:58:00
9 UAE Team Emirates 18:02:00
10 Caja Rural 18:06:00
11 Team Sunweb 18:10:00
12 Katusha-Alpecin 18:14:00
13 Astana 18:18:00
14 QuickStep-Floors 18:22:00
15 Bahrain-Merida 18:26:00
16 LottoNL-Jumbo 18:30:00
17 BMC 18:34:00
18 AG2R La Mondiale 18:38:00
19 Orica-Scott 18:42:00
20 Movistar 18:46:00
21 Team Sky 18:50:00
22 Trek-Segafredo 18:54:00
 
Team order is set by the organiser according to its own subjective interests. Looking at the place of wildcard teams, stage win candidates and GC win candidates (including two former winners) it's clear that the order is not based on anything resembling sporting merit.
Movistar is the team of last year winner, they are the only Spanish WT team, they've won the WT Team rankings several seasons including last year... but they don't have a serious contender for GC. Unipublic is having a deference to Movistar placing them just before last year runner-up and current year big favourite and the retiring champion honored with bib number 1.
 
Re:

ice&fire said:
Team order is set by the organiser according to its own subjective interests. Looking at the place of wildcard teams, stage win candidates and GC win candidates (including two former winners) it's clear that the order is not based on anything resembling sporting merit.
Movistar is the team of last year winner, they are the only Spanish WT team, they've won the WT Team rankings several seasons including last year... but they don't have a serious contender for GC. Unipublic is having a deference to Movistar placing them just before last year runner-up and current year big favourite and the retiring champion honored with bib number 1.
The order looks fine to me. All the main predicted GC contenders and the favourites for the stage win are all going in the second half.

Not that it really matters anyway, with just 90 minutes between first and last teams.
 

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