Goss hits the gas to win Denmark opener

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Matt Goss (Team HTC-Columbia) won the opening stage of the Tour of Denmark on Wednesday, besting Michael Van Stayen (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and teammate Mark Renshaw for the victory in a 59-rider field sprint.

The 23-year-old Australian, taking his third win of the season, also leads both the general classification and points classification.

The stage was marred by crashes which split the peloton late in the race as it sped to the day's finale. "There were three laps of 3.5 kilometres at the finish and it was very technical," said Team HTC-Columbia sports director Brian Holm. "We knew that it might be risky so we went to check things out before and that helped a lot.

"For the first 150 kilometres things were quiet, Saxo Bank were doing a lot of work, and then things started to get faster for the last part, and it all got a bit more complicated.

"One of our riders [Gert Dockx] crashed on the finishing circuit as it started raining very heavily, and that meant we knew we had to stay at the front. Coming up to the sprint, there were a lot of crashes too in the closing kilometres, but Goss got through them ok for the win. I'm very pleased for him."

Holm says that rather than looking too far ahead, the team will be gunning for stage wins. "Goss was hoping for a win here, he's got it now and I know all the guys are keen to do well here, so we'll take it on the day by day."