198 riders started the 72nd edition of La Vuelta, divided in 22 teams, the first on the road being Manzana-Postobon on the occasion of the inaugural team time trial in the streets of Nîmes. The course showcased the historical monuments of the French city. Second in action, Lotto-Soudal set the first time of reference in 16.22. Bora-Hansgrohe bettered the Belgian team. The young guns of Team Sunweb impressed with the time of 16.04 (av.: 51.2km/h) while half of the teams had crossed the finishing line.
It was a matter of hundredths of a second for Quick-Step Floors to take the lead ahead of the Dutch team, also with a time of 16.04. But BMC Racing Team managed to build a substantial difference, with a time of 15.58 (av.: 51.5km/h). With the American team being the only one to cover the course under 16 minutes, Rohan Dennis grabbed the first red jersey of La Vuelta 2017.
No team was able to come close to BMC as the last ones tackled the very technical course. But Team Sky managed to set the fourth best time (16.07) and put Chris Froome ahead of most of his rivals for the general classification. Esteban Chaves and the Yates brothers (Orica-Scott) lost 8 seconds over Froome, Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) 22 seconds, Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafred) 26, and Fabio Aru (Astana) 32.
