Tour of Britain: Kittel wins stage 1 in Liverpool

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Marcel Kittel won the first stage and took the race lead at the Tour of Britain. The German sprinter for Giant-Shimano nosed out his rivals after 130 kilometers on a circuit course around Liverpool. Nicola Ruffoni (Bardiani-CSF) was second and local favourite Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) third.

"It was really messy at the finish - it's always difficult when you have a downhill section in the final kilometre as it becomes really fast and harder to hold position," Kittell said.

The race opened with a criterium stage, eight laps of a 13.1km city course through Liverpool. A break formed on the first lap, with Richard Handley (Rapha Condor JTL), Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani CSF), Mark McNally (An Post-Chainreaction) and Jonathan Mould (NFTO) building up a gap of about 1:15 for the first few laps. It was up to 1:44 with 40km left to go.

It couldn’t last, though, and with 10km to go, the gap was down to 25 seconds. Handley dropped back to the field as Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) jumped to try and bridge up. Omega Pharma-QuickStep led the chase, with the three leaders looking back nervously.

Steve Cummings (BMC) was the next to attack, but he was swallowed up by the onrushing field, with the three leaders soon caught as well.

With 3.4km to go, the break was over and the race started anew. Brad Wiggins (Sky) moved to the front and pushed the pace, with NetApp backing him up.

NetApp led the way into the final kilometer before giving way to Giant-Shimano. An NFTO rider jumped for the sprint, but too early, and was blown away as Kittel rushed past him to take the win and the leader’s jersey.

"The team were strong today, controlling the race then we had to come really late for the lead-out. We found a way through on the right and this worked well," Kittel said.

"It's good to win the first stage. It's really nice to see the reaction of the spectators here - a lot of people came out to the race today."

The former world champion Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) could not get out of the saddle in the final sprint due to his injuries but managed to take third. Cavendish's crash happened after he was forced to change his cleats mid-stage. During the chase back he was forced to take immediate action after a car in front of him hit the brakes.

"I had to change my cleats in the beginning of the stage. I was coming back after and 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," he said in a team press release.

"I felt immediately a lot of pain on my quadriceps," he added. "It took me a lap to come back even because our team car couldn't assist me immediately because it was on the front. At that point I wasn't planning to sprint either, 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."

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