Salt and pedal: 'Superman' leads Astana to opening Vuelta stage win

Astana struck the first blow on La Vuelta a Espana on Saturday, sprinting to victory in an opening team time trial played out over a spectacular background of salt lakes.

The Kazakh outfit clocked 14min 15.08secs for the 13.4km course which took in the famed salt flats of Torrevieja on Spain's south-east coast.

Deceuninck-Quick-Step were two seconds off the pace with Team Sunweb in third spot, five seconds behind.

Victory on Saturday put Colombia's Miguel Angel Lopez into the leader's red jersey.

"I'm delighted, we did everything right," said Lopez, the rider nicknamed 'Superman' who said there had been no pre-planning over which member of the team would have the honour of crossing the line first.

"No decision was made on this -- it was done at that moment." Lopez, who was third on the Giro d'Italia in the spring and is bidding to follow Tour de France champion Egan Bernal as a Grand Tour winner, also has the advantage of being one La Vuelta's top climbers which could prove key.

"We ..