Unfavourable terrain? Lopez doesn't like climbing?
As was mentioned earlier, he's actually not all that good on the muritos, particularly the unipuerto ones. I venture that the bit of climbing before things kicked off today leveled the playing field.
I agree in a way, it does seem to be missing a bit of star quality. But still much rather see a competitive 4 way battle of riders with different qualities, than some burly English or Dutch rider dominate a time trial and then grind their way to a dull victory in the mountains.
I think it's a fairly strong foursome, IMHO. And today bodes well for the battles to come.
I mean the World Champion, a two-time GT winner and a guy who finished on a GT podium twice last year battling out against the guy who was the favorite both coming into the Giro and the Vuelta. The only two guys who have a stronger Palmares than the Movistar duo right now are Froome and Nibali, and it's quite possible neither of them wins another Grand Tour. Realistically, the only guys who are currently fit and healthy and might be making this a better race are Gerraint Thomas and Egan Bernal, and neither of those guys could be touted as stars as of fourteen months ago.
Yeah, there's a "star" quality factor missing, but I think it's mostly that the four of them are rather bland interviews -particularly in English-.