Monday 8 September 2014 13:31, UK
Marcel Kittel took the lead of the Tour of Britain after sprinting to victory on stage one in Liverpool as Mark Cavendish recovered from a crash to finish third.
Kittel became distanced from his Giant-Shimano lead-out train in the closing 2km but had enough power to return to the head of the race and claim a comfortable victory over second-placed Nicola Ruffoni.
Cavendish hit the ground and injured his left thigh early in the stage after colliding with a car and although he had recovered enough to contest the sprint, he started too far back to challenge Kittel.
After picking up ten bonus seconds on the line, Kittel now leads the general classification by one second from Sonny Colbrelli, who formed part of the day's breakaway and picked up nine bonus seconds at intermediate sprints, with Ruffoni three seconds back in third and Cavendish six seconds off the pace in fifth.
Team Sky's Ben Swift finished fifth on the day, while team-mate Sir Bradley Wiggins crossed the line in the main bunch.
Cavendish said afterwards: "I was behind a car. Someone had to stop for a puncture, so the car slammed on its brakes, and there was an island in the road. If I went right, I would hit a traffic island, so I went left and I whacked another car. I hit it with my left leg and I was down on the road. I felt immediately a lot of pain on my quadriceps.
"At that point I wasn't planning to sprint - it was painful. But after a couple of laps we decided to just try anyway, but sprint seated because I was in pain. I still got third, but it's a shame because I really wanted to try and win in front of the British public."
The opening day of the race took place in glorious sunshine on a 104.8km route made up of eight laps of a flat 13.1km circuit in Liverpool.
Colbrelli (Bardiani-CSF) was joined in a four-man breakaway by British trio Richard Handley (Rapha Condor JLT), Jon Mould (NFTO) and Mark McNally (AN Post - Chain Reaction), and the Italian won all three intermediate sprints to ensure his high placing in the overall standings.
The last of the escapees were caught with 3.4km to go, at which point Wiggins briefly took over on the front of the peloton, before making way for the marauding NetApp-Endura team of Irish sprinter Sam Bennett.
They were soon overtaken by Giant-Shimano, but when Kittel became detached, Adam Blythe (NFTO) looked to capitalise by launching an early sprint for the line.
The Yorkshireman couldn't maintain his pace and was overtaken by Kittel 100m out, and although Cavendish attempted to come back at the German, he had left himself with too much to do.
Kittel said afterwards: “It’s always pretty difficult if just before the last 1km there is a downhill section. The bunch becomes very fast and you almost cannot hold your position and you have to come pretty late.
“Me and my team were pretty lucky that we still could pass on the right side. That was nice and I am very happy with what we did today. It's good to win the first stage."
Stage one result
1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Giant-Shimano, 2:16:35
2 Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, same time
3 Mark Cavendish (GB) Omega Pharma – Quick-Step, st
4 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Sharp, st
5 Ben Swift (GB) Team Sky, st
6 Barry Markus (Ned) Belkin, st
7 Daniel McLay (GB) Great Britain, st
8 Heinrich Haussler (Aus) IAM Cycling, st
9 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff-Saxo,
10 Enrique Sanz (Spa) Movistar, st
Selected other 78 Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky, st
General classification
1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Giant-Shimano, 2:16:25
2 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) bardiani-CSF, +1sec
3 Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, +4
4 Jon Mould (GB) NFTO, same time
5 Mark Cavendish (GB) Omega Pharma – Quick-Step, +6
6 Richard Handley (GB) Rapha Condor JLT, + 7
7 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Sharp, +10
8 Ben Swift (GB) Team Sky, st
9 Barry Markus (Ned) Belkin, st
10 Daniel McLay (GB) Great Britain, st
Selected other
76 Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky, st
