For the second consecutive edition of the Vuelta a España, the Australian time-trial champion, Rohan Dennis, has ended the first stage of Spain’s Grand Tour in the red jersey. Twelve months after his team time-trial success on last year’s opening day the BMC Racing rider demonstrated his individual prowess against the clock in Málaga to beat Team Sky’s Michal Kwiatkowski by six seconds.

As the sun dipped on a warm August afternoon and flocks of British tourists made the most of their Bank Holiday weekend, 176 riders careered one by one round an eight-kilometre course in the city’s historic heart. While a modest climb and small cobbled section were not enough to separate the general classification contenders greatly, the atmospheric finish along the pedestrianised Calle Marqués de Larios ensured a fun opening to the Vuelta’s 73rd running.

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In recent years the race has been the most tightly contested of the three Grand Tours. Over the past decade the average time gap on the Vuelta podium has been just above two minutes – almost half that of the Tour de France. With this history in mind there was little complacency as each member of the peloton rolled out on the Málaga waterfront. “The Vuelta used to be a lot more relaxed,” Mitchelton-Scott’s sports director, Matt White, jokingly complained before the stage. “There’s no relaxed racing any more, anywhere.”

Team Sky’s Dylan van Baarle was the best of the early riders, with the Dutch time-trial champion enjoying a lengthy stint in the hot seat. He was dethroned by Movistar’s Nelson Oliveira before Kwiatkowski surged into the lead with a commanding ride. But the Pole’s time was not enough to hold off the fast-finishing Dennis, the fourth-last rider of the day.

“I was confident but when I saw Kwiatkowski’s time I became a little nervous,” admitted the Australian, who in 2015 beat the Tour de France time-trial speed record. “In the end you can only do what you can do – I just put everything out there and hoped for the win.” Dennis’s victory means he is the first non-European rider to win individual time-trial stages at all three Grand Tours.

BMC Racing will be hoping Dennis’s success bodes well for the weeks ahead. The team’s leader, Richie Porte, was considered among the main contenders in Spain after crashing out of the Tour de France but a bout of gastroenteritis on the eve of the race disrupted his preparations.

Porte finished 51 seconds down on the winning time. “It was terrible,” he said with characteristic bluntness. “I’ve felt absolutely shocking – it’s been hard to be motivated for it. But it’s nice to start the race.” If Porte fails to recover an already wide-open Vuelta field will become even more unpredictable.

But Dennis was upbeat about his teammate’s prospects: “He is not too bad – he’s in good spirits. Today wasn’t suited to him as it was. We will see him get better and better as the Vuelta goes on.”

With the Sky pair Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas opting to ride the Tour of Britain, which begins next Sunday, British hopes in Spain rest primarily with Simon and Adam Yates. Although neither brother is a renowned time-trialler both gave a good account. By finishing only 29 seconds down Simon Yates gained a slender advantage over Porte and several rivals. The Colombian climber Nairo Quintana was a second slower than Yates while the 2010 Vuelta winner, Vincenzo Nibali, finished 11 seconds behind the Briton.

The Vuelta continues on Sunday in the foothills of southern Spain, with a 163km ride from Marbella to Caminito Del Rey. Stage two will begin with a minute’s silence for Javier Otxoa, a former Spanish professional rider who twice won gold at the Paralympics after recovering from a training accident that left his twin brother, Ricardo, dead. Otxoa, remembered for beating Lance Armstrong on an epic Tour de France mountain stage in 2000, died during the week after a lengthy illness.