Tour de Yorkshire: Asselman wins stage 1

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Jesper Asselman (Roompot-Charles) defied expectations and smashed the hopes of the sprinters on the opening stage of the Tour de Yorkshire, taking out a rainy stage to Selby from a day-long breakaway, the rest of which was just caught within metres of the line.

Asselman, who snagged a small Yorkshire flag with his handlebars, held off Filippo Fortin (Cofidis) and Jonas van Genechten (Vital Concept-B&B Hotels), with teammate Boy van Poppel forgoing his own sprint to throw his arms in the air to celebrate his team's win.

"It's the biggest victory of my career," Asselman said. "Last year a really tough year, I broke my ankle and I was almost the whole year off the bike. In the spring, with the classics, I already felt I was really strong but I didn't feel like it was going my way, and I was a little frustrated. That this happened now - I still can't believe it. It's really awesome to start the second part of the season like this."

It was an incredible feat for the breakaway to hold on - even though Asselman's fellow escapees Kevin Vermaerke (Hagens Berman Axeon), Daniel Bigham (Ribble Pro Cycling), and Joseph Nally (Great Britain National Team) were caught in sight of the line.

"I thought we were going to get caught [earlier] because the advantage went down really fast in the last 15 to 20km," Asselman said. "When we went underneath the flamme rouge I knew we had a little chance, but I knew I had to stay calm and wait for the right moment. It was a little bit of a gamble, but I went through a small gap on the inside and just went full gas. I looked under my elbow and saw it was going to happen."

The monumental effort of the breakaway was aided slightly by bone-chilling cold and rain that plagued racers for the final half of the stage, the rain at times mixed with hail.

"I think it's always an advantage to ride in front in these type of conditions," Asselman said. "It was so cold. I tried to put on an extra jacket and I couldn't do it, I couldn't close the zipper. I'm still shivering like crazy."

Asselman leads the Tour de Yorkshire over Fortin and fellow breakaway rider Jacob Hennessy (Canyon DHB p/b Bloor Homes), who won both intermediate sprints and earned six seconds in time bonuses.

How it unfolded

The 2019 Tour de Yorkshire got underway with a testing 182.5km stage from Doncaster to Selby, with some patches of blue sky interrupting ominously dark clouds overhead.

With only one classified climb on the route, the Côte de Baggaby Hill with 47.5km to go, it was a day primed for a stereotypical no-hope breakaway. But was it?

A group of seven riders nonetheless gave it a college try, with James Fouche (Team Wiggins Lecol), Kevin Vermaerke (Hagens Berman Axeon), Jacob Hennessy (Canyon DHB p/b Bloor Homes), Jesper Asselman (Roompot-Charles), Daniel Bigham (Ribble Pro Cycling), and Joseph Nally and Sean Flynn (Great Britain National Team) making up the escape that was kept in close check by Team Ineos and Dimension Data.

The skies opened up midway through the northward journey to Selby, but the foul weather did not deter the breakaway, who worked to build up a 1:45 lead.

The seven riders had a few nuggets of inspiration along the route, with two intermediate sprints bookending the sole classified climb. It was Hennessy who reaped the fruits of the day's labour, taking out both sprints and the climb.

Baggaby Hill was the undoing for Hennessy, however, and he soon left the breakaway to go back to the shelter of the peloton along with Flynn and Fouche, leaving Nally, Bigham, Vermaerke and Asselman to try and hold off the chase from the peloton.

Largely due to the power of Bigham, who is part of the national team pursuit squad, the quartet extended their lead after the climb to a remarkable 2:34, and continued to hold onto a two minute advantage with 25km to go as Dimension Data's Rasmus Tiller suffered on the front of the peloton to try and keep the gap from expanding.

Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) suffered a puncture with 23km to go, but had no worries in getting back into the peloton, who were steadily chipping away at the breakaway's lead once the newly minted Team Ineos sent a man to the front to help Dimension Data.

The four up front made the WorldTour teams work for it, and, holding a minute with 14km remaining, it was up to Eddie Dunbar and Ian Stannard (Ineos) to slash their advantage.

The twisting, often narrow route to Selby caused a little havoc for the bunch, and the repeated slow-downs left the four leaders with 30 seconds still with 5km to go and a whisper of hope they could foil the 'doomed breakaway' moniker.

The four leaders cooperated perfectly like a well-oiled team pursuit squad, with each one taking hard turns, low in an aerodynamic tuck, fighting against a bunch led by Stannard. Could youth and exuberance really beat experience and brute strength?

With 20 seconds in hand with 2km to go, it was touch and go for the breakaway as Katusha-Alpecin took over for Sky to try and crush the interlopers once and for all.

With no time for cat and mouse, the four kept pushing even though the peloton had them in sight with 200m to go. Asselman went first and could probably feel the breath of the peloton but managed to just hold on to claim the stage and overall race lead.

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