Five years after he secured his greatest success to date, a podium finish in the 2010 Vuelta a España in Madrid, Peter Velits (BMC Racing Team) once again hit the limelight in the Spanish Grand Tour when he claimed the first leader's jersey of the race in Marbella.
The 7.4-kilometre stage from Puerto Banús was neutralised after concerns were raised about the safety of the course in the build-up to the race, but while a number of teams opted not to take any risks, it seemed that BMC, as befits their status as world team time trial champions, felt almost honour-bound to race as normal.
"We spoke about it on the bus and we decided to have a go and take our chance despite the risks. We're the world champions in the TTT and we wanted to show we can win on any parcours," Velits said afterwards.
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The 30-year-old is certainly something of a specialist in the team time trial. Since the discipline was re-introduced to the World Championships for trade teams in 2012, Velits has been on the winning team on each occasion, winning gold with Omega Pharma-QuickStep in Valkenburg and Florence, and with BMC in Ponferrada last Autumn.
"We decided to go out hard and we were ready to use up guys early on and we were still able to finish strongly with the bare five riders and I think that was the right tactic," Velits said of BMC's winning ride on Saturday evening.
It was Velits' second time tasting victory as part of a collective effort on the opening day of the Vuelta, as he and current BMC teammate Tejay van Garderen were members of the HTC-Highroad squad that claimed the win in Seville in 2010.
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