This year’s Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta kicks off with a team time trial in Marina de Cudeyo on the northern coast of Spain, close to the city of Santander. Almost 20km of racing awaits the teams as they can make some early gains in the general classification of this year’s race. Not quite pan-flat, there is nothing on the parcours that should trouble the riders hill-wise.
The differences between some of the teams will be quite large. The might of say SD Worx or Trek Segafredo is lightyears ahead of the local team, Rio Miera for instance. The Soltec team is boosted by the presence of guest rider Anna Kiesenhofer, but even she won’t be able to single-handedly claw back minutes to the favourites.
Other highlights include the Norwegian battle in the early-middle part of proceedings. Both are ranked closely in the UCI standings and are keen to outdo the other. The Women’s WorldTour teams begin in earnest in the 2nd half of the start list. BikeExchange-Jayco goes into this team time trial as one of the favourites after delivering strong time trial performances this season with a number of riders.
The early GC will be dictated by the result today. The expectation is that Annemiek van Vleuten will lose some time to her rivals on Trek and SD Worx and have to go attacking over the next 2 stages in the hills. She will hope to limit her losses whilst they hope to put as much pressure as possible on the Dutch star.
Start times for 2022 Ceratizit Challenge Team Time Trial
All times are in CEST as provided by the race organiser
17:50 – Rio Miera-Cantabria Deporte
17:53 – Laboral Kutxa Fundación Euskadi
17:56 – Soltec Team
17:59 – Bizkaia-Durango
18:02 – Massi-Tactic Women Team
18:05 – Human Powered Health
18:08 – Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
18:11 – Team Coop-Hitec Products
18:14 – Roland Cogeas Edelweiss Squad
18:17 – Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling
18:20 – EF Education-TIBCO-SVB
18:23 – Liv Racing Xstra
18:26 – Valcar-Travel & Service
18:29 – BikeExchange-Jayco
18:32 – Jumbo-Visma
18:35 – UAE Team ADQ
18:38 – Canyon-SRAM
18:41 – Team DSM
18:44 – FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope
18:47 – Trek-Segafredo
18:50 – SD Worx
18:53 – Movistar
