Three Dutch cycling teams are taking part in this year's Tour of Spain, the Vuelta. The race started today on a beach in Benidorm.
Skil-Shimano has four Dutch cyclists in its team and Rabobank and Vacansoleil-DCM have both sent three Dutch cyclists to the race around the Iberian peninsula. BMC and Quickstep both have one Dutchman on the team.
Italian cyclist Vincenzo Nibali, last year's winner is wearing the number 1 jersey.
It will be the last large tour for Mark Cavendish's HTC-Highroad team as the US team will cease to exist after this year.
The competition started with team time trials over a 13.5 kilometre course. Skil-Shimano was the first of 22 teams to start. Vacansoleil started second. Skil-Shimano finished in seventh place in the team time trials 18 seconds behind winning team Leopard. Rabobank came in half a minute behind the best team time in 15th place and Vacansoleil were 18th.
It's the 66th edition of the Vuelta. The round Spain race ends on 11 September in Madrid.
(nc)
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