Team Sky’s Chris Froome and team-mate Nicholas Roche are among those to question the Costa del Sol route of Saturday’s opening team time-trial of the Vuelta a Espana.
Two-time Tour de France champion Froome posted pictures of a boardwalk and a sand-covered section of the 7.4 kilometre test from Porto Banus to Marbella which opens the Tour of Spain, the year’s third and final Grand Tour.
Preview of Saturday's @lavuelta 7,4km TTT course ??? pic.twitter.com/PbnIbDBTWn
— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) August 20, 2015
Froome’s comment included emoticons to express alarm and confusion after previewing the route with his eight Team Sky colleagues.
Nicholas Roche, the Irishman who is riding in support of Froome, wrote “Vuelta ttt!!!! Are you joking????” in posting a picture of his bike riding over the sand.
Vuelta ttt!!!! Are you joking???? pic.twitter.com/koVlW7T72w
— nicholas roche (@nicholasroche) August 20, 2015
Ian Boswell, another Team Sky rider, posted a video on Instagram of a team-mate colliding with a tourist riding in the opposite direction on a beach-side bike path.
The significance of the opening stage – described as “very technical” on the Vuelta’s official website – is slight in terms of time differences as part of the 3,357.1-km total route, which includes 13 hilly and mountain stages, with nine summit finishes.
But the riders’ concerns will be based on safety and it remains to be seen how the organisers address the worries.
Froome, who finished second to Alberto Contador in the race 12 months’ ago, is one of the favourites, depending on how he has recovered from the Tour, which finished on July 26.
Other leading contenders are Nairo Quintana, the Tour runner-up, 2014 Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali, Fabio Aru, Mikel Landa, Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodriguez.