Tarling sixth as McNulty wins first stage of Vuelta

American Brandon McNulty won the opening stage of the Vuelta a Espana with victory by two seconds in the individual time trial.

The UAE Team Emirates rider finished the flat 12km stage between Lisbon and Oeiras in 12 minutes 35 seconds to edge out Czech rider Mathias Vacek.

Belgian Wout van Aert had looked on course to win the stage at one point, but he had to settle for third in the standings after he finished three seconds behind McNulty, who went out as the penultimate rider.

Welsh rider Josh Tarling placed sixth, just eight seconds adrift of the stage winner, as the 20-year-old made his Grand Tour debut.

McNulty said: “I don’t know if I expected to win. I knew if something crazy happened I could, so I guess something crazy happened.

“I was hoping for it, but this is hard to believe for me. I had super good legs, and I’ve been feeling really good in training.”

Last year’s Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss finished over half a minute down on three-time champion Primoz Roglic who was eighth fastest and 17 seconds behind McNulty.

McNulty, 26, will get to wear the red jersey in Sunday’s 194km second stage from Cascais to Ourem.