Tour de Yorkshire: Nordhaug wins opener in Scarborough

Lars Petter Nordhaug (Team Sky) won the opening stage at the Tour de Yorkshire in Scarborough on Friday. The Norwegian was a part of a five-rider breakaway that made it to the finish line where he out sprinted his rivals. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) finished second in the sprint and Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) was third.
 
Nordhaug pulled on the first leader's jersey of the race following his stage win. He heads into the second stage on Saturday with a four-second lead over Voeckler and six seconds on Rossetto.

Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin) made his return to racing at the Tour de Yorkshire after suffering from illness in the early season. However, the German sprinter abandoned the race after roughly 100km. Another pre-race favourite, Ben Swift (Team Sky) also abandoned the race after he crashed inside the final 60 kilometres of racing.

Meanwhile Bradley Wiggins (WIGGINS) made it safely through the opening day of racing as part of his new development team but he languished in 96th place, almost 15 minutes down on his former teammate, Nordhaug.

How it unfolded

The inaugural Tour de Yorkshire rolled out on Friday from the coastal town of Bridlington under blue skies and fresh spring air carried over from the North Sea. The race, built as part of the grand depart’s legacy from 2014, saw 18 teams rollout and head towards a demanding 174 kilometre route through some of the county’s most demanding terrain.

It wasn’t long before the day’s first break sauntered clear with Mark Christian (WIGGINS), Loïc Chetout (Cofidis), Eddie Dunbar (NFTO), Mark Stewart (Madison Genesis) and Rasmus Quaade (Cult Energy Pro Cycling) establishing a near five-minute lead.

Team Sky were unwilling to let leaders build anything that would threaten the early overall complexion of the race and they quickly set about reducing the deficit and by the time the five-man break had reached the 90 kilometre point and the foot of the Côte de Rosedale the gap had been reduced to just a few seconds.

Pierrick Quéméneur (EUC) was the next rider to try his luck and he was quickly joined by Tim Declercq (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise). Kittel, by this point was already struggling having been dropped on the previous climb and as the leading pair moved 40 seconds clear of the field Kittel’s position only began to worsen. He navigated through the team cars, alone and cut off from his teammates, before finally giving up.

The German wasn’t the only rider to leave the race. On the wet descent into Egton with just over 50 kilometres to go Swift was involved in a heavy fall that took out a number of riders. 
The crucial move was soon to come with 40 kilometres to go as the race headed into Whitby. First a 15-man break moved clear containing the eventual winning break.

It was Deignan who put the hammer down on the summit of the Côte de Robin Hood’s Bay after 145km with only Voecker, Nordhaug, Rossetto and Sanchez able to respond.

By the time they reached the finish line they had over a minute on the chasing peloton and Sky made their advantage pay, responding to a late attacks with their own accelerations but the quintet could not be separated until the line, with Nordhaug timing his sprint perfectly in the blustery conditions.

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