As it happened: Itzulia Basque Country stage 1 time trial

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the opening stage of the centenary edition of the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country.

First rider down the start ramp on what is currently a sunny day in the start and finish town of Irún, right on the border on with France, is Australian Damien Howson (Q36.5) at 2.10 PM local time. 

He'll be followed by another 167 riders, all at minute intervals, barring the last 20 who are off at two-minute intervals. 

This 10 kilometre course marks the return of the opening solo TT to the Itzulia Basque Country after a year's absence. The last one to be held was in 2022, a 7.6 kilometre time trial in the nearby town of  Hondarribia. The winner then is one of the favourites for today's TT: Primoz Roglic, who finished five seconds ahead of another favourite for today, Remco Evenepoel and 16 seconds on the Belgian's (then) teammate, Remi Cavagna.
Cavagna, incidentally, isn't racing in this year's Itzulia Basque Country. He's currently part of Movistar's line-up for the Classics and is set to make his debut in Paris-Roubaix next weekend.

Roglic and Remco are in Irun, though, and like a lot of the favourites, including last year's Itzulia Basque Country winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), they'll be off to a very early start in this afternoon's TT. Here's the list of start times for top contenders in the first hour of racing this afternoon:

2:17 p.m Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers)

2:22 p.m Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious)

2:23 p.m Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates)

2:26 p.m Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek)

2:30 p.m Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe)

2:32 p.m Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)

2:47 p.m Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates)

2:50 p.m Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek)

2:54 p.m Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe)

2:56 p.m Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike)

2:57 p.m Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step)

Reading that, you can see that the two most recent winners of the Vuelta a España, 2023 champion Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease A Bike) and his predecessor Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) are starting within a minute of each other. Whether the Belgian can catch Kuss in such a short distance though, remains to be seen.

Here's a map of the route, the first and last parts run through the town, with the only categorized climb, the cat. 3 Olaberria, on a country road just outside Irun. Then it's a fast drop back into town and the finish

The climb itself is not overly difficult, just a couple of kilometres long with gradients of 6.3% at the steepest. However, as per the stage profile, there are a couple of 100 metre uphill cobbled sections on the course itself, both graded at 10% and coming in the opening and then the final kilometre, which could have some interesting consequences.

And Damien Howson (Q36.5) is now out on the course and the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country is officially underway.

Breaking news: according to the official race website, Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) crashed during the recon for the time trial and will be a DNS.

Another DNS, incidentally, is reported to be Pidcock's compatriot Simon Yates (Jayco-AIUIa) who has fallen ill.

Howson finishes in a time of 13:33, but the Australian's time is quickly superceded by Nicola Conci (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who clocks the provisional best time of 13:19.

Double Itzulia Basque Country winner Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) is due to start at 1430, with last year's champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) following him down the start ramp two minutes later.

Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) clocks the best intermediate time to date of 7:07.  As the winner of the Tirreno-Adriatico opening TT, the Spaniard was expected to feature prominently in today's stage, and he looks to be living up to expectations.

Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), a former stage winner in Itzulia Basque Country, becomes the first rider to go under 13 minutes for today's TT: 12:59.

However, Bilbao is rapidly overtaken by Juan Ayuso with the best time of 12:50.

Another strong performance, this time coming from Primoz Roglic, who powers through the intermediate time split a whopping 12 seconds faster than Ayuso.

Vingegaard turns in a much slower performance than expected, 17 seconds down on Roglic at the mid-way point.

Wow. Primoz Roglic turns in an impressive fastest time for the course of 12:31, that's 19 seconds faster than Ayuso.

Vingegaard comes home 18 seconds slower than Roglic, while Mikel Landa, second in the Volta a Catalunya crosses the line nearly a minute back. That's a manageable loss for the Dane, but Landa is already looking to be on the backfoot in the GC game.

And Remco Evenepoel, World TT Champion, is now on the course. Second to Roglic in 2022 in Itzulia Basque Country's opening TT, he will be looking to go one better this time round.

Tom Pidcock out of Itzulia Basque Country after crash in time trial recon

And here's a picture of Roglic out on the course

Remco Evenepoel is nine seconds down at the checkpoint. Can he make up the gap in the second half?

2022 Giro d'Italia winner Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) comes through the checkpoint well off the pace set by his teammate Roglic, 36 seconds down.

Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease A Bike) completes the course 1:30 down on Roglic, a result which could impact negatively on his GC hopes.

Evenepoel crosses the line 14 seconds down on Roglic and a second slower than Mattias Skjelemose (Lidl-Trek), taking the third best time. Sporza reports that Evenepoel may have crashed in the opening kilometre. 

1. Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) 12:34

2. Mattias Skjelmose  (Lidl-Trek) at 10sec

3. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) at 11 sec

4. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) at 15 sec

5. Juan Ayuso (UAE-Team Emirates) at 16 sec

It's being an eventful Itzulia by anyone's standards, and the race is barely an hour old. Reports that Evenepoel fell on the first corner of the race, while Roglic went briefly off course in the last kilometre after taking the vehicle diversion exit. He quickly realised his mistake and still clocked the best time.

Race footage shows images of Evenepoel with a sizable hole in hthe upper right leg of his shorts and road rash to go with it. So that crash definitely happened.

If you were wondering if Jonas Vingegaard used that striking helmet again in his latest TT, by the way, the answer is in the photo below.

And here's a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, by the race organisation of Evenepoel's crash. Fortunately it was a fairly slo-mo affair, and he could get back into racing quickly.
Photos of Davide Formolo (Movistar), incidentally, also show the Italian with a hole in his shorts in a virtually identical place to Evenepoel's, so the Belgian hasn't been the only rider to go down

Another rider just went down on the same corner as Evenepoel: Clement Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels). But like the Belgian, fortunately the Frenchman could get and get moving again very quickly.

Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) has dislodged Ayuso from that fifth provisonal spot on the stage, by the way, which the Frenchman-  who won the Etoile de Bessèges TT earlier this year -  completed 16 seconds slower than Roglic.

Excellent time for Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), back in racing after falling sick on stage 1 of the Volta and and now just seven seconds slower than Roglic at the finish.

Some comments from Vingegaard to Eurosport and Sporza re the time trial, where he finished 15 seconds down on Roglic, currently lying fifth on the stage:
"It was a very hard, explosive start, so I think i can be happy with how I rode today and the feeling I had, it was good."
"It seems overall the course is a little bit less hard than other years, but previous years also show that it all comes down to the last day, basically, so I think it will be a big fight that day and the whole week."
"I had a good time after Tirreno" - which he won, "some good training so I'm looking forward to this week."

At the moment Roglic is looking steady on top of the rankings in what would be his fifth time trial win in Itzulia Basque Country (and sixth in the race), but there are about 50 riders left to go, so it's not done and dusted yet. 

An emotional moment for Basque Markel Beloki (EF Education-EasyPost) and his family as he rides through the streets of Irun. The son of triple Tour de France podium finisher Joseba, Itzulia Basque Country is the neo-pro's first ever stage race on home soil - and he could hardly be in a bigger one. 

And here's another post on Twitter, formerly X, courtesy of the race organisation, this time showing when Roglic went off course. Only a brief error, but probably cost him some valuable seconds. 

Shades of the Giro 2019 start for Roglic right now. Back in Bologna's opening TT he also opted for a very early start because the weather was supposed to turn bad (which it didn't), got the best time and then had a very long wait in the hot seat. At the end his patience was rewarded with the pink jersey. Will history repeat itself five years later?

And some words from Primoz Roglic about his ride and his return to Itzulia Basque Country, which he last raced in 2022 and his explanation for his taking the wrong fork in the road in the last kilometre.
"It's great, great to be here and legs obviously were good, I felt strong, I made a bit of a mistake at the end and then I corrected it, luckily still enough."
"I probably did too many recons and I always went right [at the deviation] with the recon, so I went full and I went right, but then I realised after, no should be already  so I had to turn back and go over the finish line." 

Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), winner of Itzulia Basque Country in 2019, powers through the course. He's an outsider for the overall victory this year, perhaps, but came home third overall last year and has no less than six podium finishes here, so is definitely a rider to watch.

Izagirre crosses the line a respectable 21 seconds down.

1. Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) 12:34

2. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) at 7sec

3. Mattias Skjelmose  (Lidl-Trek) at 10sec

4. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) at 11 sec

5. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) at 15 sec

No change in the stage standings top 5 for now, and we're into the last 20 starters.

Evenepoel discusses his performance with Eurosport: "Everything went well until 200 metres but then I went on the ground, so a bit of a silly moment, my own mistake maybe, it was a slippery part of a city, I could also see it on my hands, everything was black from the grease so it's my own fault, my own risks and onto the next."
"Of course I was hoping to be a bit ahead today, but my crash was unlucky and this caused me to be a bit behind. But Roglic did a good time trial and he's probably going to win."
"Tomorrow [Tuesday] is not the biggest chance to have time gaps, but from now on the race really starts, and hopefully the bad luck is over for us."

And here's a shot of Evenepoel, this time with his crash injury clearly visible

Good grief. It's sleeting.

Riders battling to keep their bikes upright, but this bizarre rain/sleet/hail shower is rendering the course lethally slippery. 

Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates) is one of the riders to fall due to the brief burst of wet weather conditions, on the same corner as Evenepoel. Other parts of the course don't look half as affected by the weather conditions, but the ground is still visibly damp.

This abrupt change of weather for the worse was, of course, why the GC contenders almost all decided to make an early start for the TT. Fortunately it's stopped raining again, but parts of the course, particularly in the town of Irun itself, look very slippy.

Riders visibly slowing down for the first few corners and the final segment given the really slippy conditions. It ain't over til it's over, of course, but currently Roglic is looking well on course for his first win of 2024.

Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) looks to have been one of the big casualties of the abrupt change in conditions. The Briton was running second at just one second to Roglic at the top of the climb midway through, but the sudden arrival of the hail and sleet shower meant he was forced to slow badly, and he then crossed the line in a provisional ninth place.

Only three riders left to start in this time trial: Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar), Johannes Staune-Mittet (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Pieter Serry (Soudal-QuickStep). 

Gonzalo Serrano powers down one of the last descents at speed, but with five riders left to come in and none of them real time trial threats, it really is all over bar the shouting.

For Roglic this (virtual) victory isn't just his first win in his new team colours, it's also  a step back in the right direction after his lacklustre Paris-Nice - and sets things up for a battle royale with Vingegaard, Evenepoel and co. in the days to come.

Pieter Serry (Soudal-QuickStep) comes through the final corners. He's nearly a minute down on Roglic, who can begin to celebrate his win.

Even without the abrupt downpour, given the dearth of GC riders in the second half, this has been a bit of a damp squib of a stage finish, but it's finally over as Pieter Serry crosses the line 1:13 down. Roglic finally takes the day.

Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) wins stage 1 of the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country and is the first race leader.

Here are the top ten for the stage, courtesy of FirstCycling

Some words from Roglic after winning the stage, his fifth time trial in Itzulia and his third opening TT in the same race in 2021, 2022 and 2024...

"I missed the turning at the end of the race, but nevertheless the outcome didn't really change because of that so just happy to take it."
"It's always like this, someone in front, someone behind, but it's just day one, the easiest day actually, so we'll take it on the day by day."
Can he keep the jersey until the  last day?
"I mean, it would be nice, to have it after the last day, but there's a long way to go yet."

For the full results, galleries and report on stage 1, you can click on the link here

Itzulia Basque Country stage 1: Primoz Roglic takes stage win despite late detour

An almost full house of jerseys for Roglic, logically enough, with the points jersey, the mountains classification for the one cat.3 climb of the day and the overall all going his way for now.
The BYR ranking is currently headed by Spanish racer Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Ayuso's squad also leads the teams ranking.

So what's happening in Itzulia Basque Country on Tuesday?

Stage 2 of the Itzulia Basque Country is 160 kilometres from stage 1 start/finish town Irun to Kanbo, taking the Itzulia across the border into France on a rolling but not excessively tricky stage. Just one cat. 3 climb early on and a slight uphill finish should see a reduced bunch sprint, very possibly the only one of the week.

And here's a photo of Roglic celebrating his stage win

That ends our live coverage for today, but we'll have further news from Itzulia Basque Country and we'll be back with more live coverage from stage 2 on Tuesday.