Guardini wins World Ports Classic opener in Antwerp

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Andrea Guardini (Astana) won the opening stage of the two-day World Ports Classic on Saturday in Antwerp. The Italian out sprinted Yauheni Hutarovich (Bretagne - Séché Environnement) and Kris Boeckmans (Lotto-Soudal) to take the stage win.

Guardini's victory granted him the overall lead after the first of two stages, and the lead in the points classification. He heads into stage 2 with a four-second lead on Hutarovich and six seconds on Boeckmans.

The peloton took on a 195km stage from Rotterdam to Antwerp under a dreary day of misty rain and cooler temperatures. A four-man breakaway set off in the early kilometres of the race that included Ronan Van Zandbeek (Cyclingteam Join's-De Rijke), Andreas Stauff (MTN-Qhubeka), Raymond Kreder (Roompot) and Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), and later joined by Babptiste Planckaert (Roubaix Lille Metropole). The five men managed to gain 3:50 minutes.

The sprinters' teams emerged at the front of the field to set a fierce pace, and because of the strong winds some riders, including Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), were caught out in the splits in the peloton.

The breakaway was reeled back in and late-race counter attacks came front Ruslan Tleubayev (Astana) and Wouter Mol (Cyclingteam Join’s-De Rijke) but they weren't able to hold their 35-second lead all the way to the finish line, caught with just three kilometres to go.

Giant-Alpecin were the most dominant team to surface in the closing kilometres, for their sprinter Marcel Kittel, however, the day belonged to Guardini. Kittel finished the stage in 21st place, the first time he finished a race since stage 6 of the Tour of Qatar in February.

"I am happy with my restart here in the World Ports Classics. My legs were better than I expected upfront and I felt strong on the bike," Kittel said on his team's website. "Unfortunately, the final sprint wasn't as good as I hoped, but I was there and it's coming back."

The World Ports Classic will resume for the second and final stage, a 164km race from Antwerp back to Rotterdam on Sunday.

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