Mark Cavendish won the opening stage of this year’s Tour de France on Saturday and with the victory donned for the first time in his career the prestigious leader’s yellow…
ADVERTISEMENTMark Cavendish won the opening stage of this year’s Tour de France on Saturday and with the victory donned for the first time in his career the prestigious leader’s yellow jersey.
The day’s ride took the bunch over 188 kilometres of relatively flat terrain from Mont-Saint-Michel to Utah Beach in Normandy.
Title contender Alberto Contador suffered a scare when the Tinkoff main man was involved in a high-speed crash with 79 kilometres to go.
Despite landing heavily on his right shoulder and tearing his jersey he was quickly back in the saddle and was escorted back into the peloton by his teammates.
Another heavy crash hit the finale but the main sprinters were already clear battling it out for day one honours.
With lightening speed Dimension Data’s Cavendish came off the wheel of Slovakia’s world champion Peter Sagan to cross over first for his 27th stage win at the Tour.
German Marcel Kittel of the Etixx-Quickstep team was second while Tinkoff rider Sagan was third.