Movistar Team faced no complication in first blood at Vuelta a España, coming into a tricky sprint at Orihuela's difficult finale. Rojas 5th at Vattenfall-Cyclassics The first point-to-point stage in the 2011 Vuelta a España was entitled to the designed story, with a long, early break, nervousness due to the win in the second part of the race and extreme tension due to the difficult finish at Playas de Orihuela, over an 8% slope into the final kilometer. Movistar Team, always attentive when strong winds show up, had no major troubles to complete the day, saving themselves from crashes and reaching the finish with all nine riders into a group where slight time gaps were seen in the finale. Pardilla, now 13th in the overall classification, Erviti and Bruseghin came into the first split, while Intxausti, Madrazo and David López came few meters behind with no time loss behind the day's winner, Brit Chris Sutton (SKY), who conquered the 174k route from La Nucía. The third stage, to be ridden on Monday, will have 163 kilometers from Petrer to Totana and the climb to the Alto de la Santa (Cat. 3) just 12k from the finish line as the key point in the Murcian stage of this year's event.

Rojas 5th at Vattenfall-Cyclassics in Hamburg
In turn, a second Movistar Team block took part in the Vattenfall-Cyclassics race, a UCI World Tour event decided into a 50-rider sprint selectioned in the flnal climbs. With an excellent load of work by the squad in the finale, Movistar Team took two riders into the main group,  Luis Pasamontes and most notably José Joaquín Rojas, back into competition after the Clásica de San Sebastián and snatching the 5th place of the day behind winner Boasson Hagen (SKY), Ciolek, Bozic and Ponzi. The next race for Rojas and his seven teammates starts on Tuesday, with the Tour de Poitou-Charentes on French turf.