Castroviejo Takes Vuelta Time Trial lead

Movistar won the opening team time trial of the Vuelta a Espana in Pamplona to give Jonathan Castroviejo the red jersey of race leader.

The team of defending champion Juan Jose Cobo set a time of 18 minutes 51 seconds over the 16.5 kilometre course in northern Spain.

Movistar finished 10 seconds ahead of Rabobank, BMC Racing and Omega Pharma-Quickstep, who all ended with the same time, while Team Sky completed the top five.

"For me it's obviously a personal satisfaction," Castroviejo said.

"Nothing was planned, everyone gave what he could in this complicated final and it turned out that I crossed the line in front."

Team Sky leader Chris Froome will begin the second stage with a 12-second deficit to Castroviejo but is two seconds ahead of the returning Alberto Contador, whose Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank squad came seventh behind Lotto-Belisol.

BMC Racing set the pace early on, with their time of 19:01 being comfortably the best of the first starters.

Rabobank and Omega Pharma-Quickstep both went quicker at the intermediate checkpoint, with the former edging ahead at the finish by fractions of a second.

Omega Pharma-Quickstep also set a time of 19:01 but were the slowest of the three teams who finished with that mark.

Katusha, Astana and Lotto-Belisol all went faster than Rabobank at the checkpoint, but at the finish it was the Dutch outfit that hung onto the fastest time heading into the closing stages.

Team Sky were the next team to set the best mark at the intermediate check, although they were not able to break Rabobank's stranglehold either and were two seconds back at the finish.

However, Rabobank saw the victory snatched away from them at the last possible moment as Movistar - the final team to start - produced a storming finish to put Castroviejo in the leader's jersey after he came across the line first.