Stage 1, Mar del Plata to Santa Rosa de la Pampa
Shaking out the Jitters.
Stage 1 consists of a huge, 763km liaison with a relatively short, 57km timed stage. Actually with many of the riders having gone quite some time without sitting astride their bikes for any appreciable amount of time, the long day may be welcome to get reacquianted with the machines with which they will spend so much time in the coming days.
Late word is that the South Africans, Iain Stavenson, Darryl Curtis, Neil Scott-Willams, and Greg Raaf broke the record for docking and customs by having their ship dock, offload, and clear customs in just over an hour. The ASO held a special scrutineering session for the riders at 5am local time just prior to the start of the opening connection.
