Stage 1 through the Scottish Borders region was won by Mark Cavendish in a bunch sprint after almost five hours in the wind and rain.
Mark Cavendish wins opening Tour of Britain stage and dons race leader’s IG Markets Gold Jersey after day one
Tour de France sprint star Mark Cavendish took victory on his return to The Tour of Britain after four years away, sprinting to victory at Whitesands in Dumfries.
Cavendish led home teammate Mark Renshaw for a HTC Highroad one-two, with Rabobank’s Theo Bos coming third on the opening stage of The Tour of Britain, the UK’s biggest professional cycle race.
Thanks to his victory, Cavendish takes an early four second lead in the Overall General Classification through time bonuses, ahead of Renshaw and Goss, pulling on the new-for-2011 IG Markets Gold Jersey and also collecting The Prostate Cancer Charity Points Jersey.
After their exploits in a day long break, Russell Hampton and Pieter Ghyllebert take the Skoda King of the Mountains and Yodel Sprints Jerseys respectively, with Vacansoleil’s Barry Markus the early leader in the UNISON Young Rider Classification.
Hampton and Ghyllebert escaped early on in the stage, as The Tour departed from a packed Peebles along the Tweed Valley to the Yodel Sprint at Innerleithen.
The two steadily built their lead, collecting the points and bonuses at the various primes, including the opening Skoda King of the Mountains climb of 2011 at Megget Hill, but all the time their advantage was marshaled by a peloton led throughout the day by HTC and Sky.
Motorpoint’s Peter Williams briefly attempted to bridge the gap between them, but to no avail and was swallowed back up before the race reached the first climb.
In wet and blustery conditions it was a heroic effort by both riders to stay away for so long, and they were cheered on their way by large and enthusiastic crowds en route, despite the conditions.
In the end though their advantage was finally extinguished on the run back through the Dumfries & Galloway countryside to the finish in Dumfries making a sprint finish inevitable.
Heading through the final turn, Renshaw and Cavendish emerged explosively from behind the Rabobank leader, with the British rider surging across the line, comfortably ahead of Renshaw and Bos.
“It’s incredible to win the first stage and get the leaders jersey,†said stage winner Mark Cavendish. “If the weather had been better we would have been a bit quicker but I think it would still have been the same result.
“Hopefully it will be a sprint again tomorrow,†continued the first ever wearer of the IG Markets Gold Jersey. “I am going to try and defend the jersey and try and get another stage win.
“We had wicked support today. The amount of cheers and banners along the stage was brilliant. Super encouraging. You wouldn’t expect this is Britain and it’s very different to when I last raced here in 2007. It’s very nice. This event is certainly growing.â€
It was a super ride by Russell Hampton and he is rewarded with a jersey (KoM) for stage 2 and a Skoda Yeti!
Alan Peiper: “We had wicked support today. The amount of cheers and banners along the stage was brilliant. Super encouraging. You wouldn’t expect this is Britain and it’s very different to when I last raced here in 2007. It’s very nice. This event is certainly growing.”
“The whole team is very motivated for this race,” said sport director, Allan Peiper, “Mark [Cavendish] in particular riding in Britain. It was a really wet stage. Rain going through the hills past Peebles punished us all the way to the finish, just inside the Scottish border.”
“Two riders took off at the beginning and kept a gap with a maximum of four and a half minutes for almost the whole stage. Our boys controlled the front and worked with Team Sky to reel in the break, which they did at about fifteen kilometers to go. On the last corner, Renshaw let two RaboBank riders go ahead – they were going into it really fast and the wind was really strong, so he played it safe thinking they’d crash.” Peiper continued,
“When they made it out ok, Renshaw pulled them in and sent Cavendish across the line ahead of him. [Lars] Bak, [Bernhard] Eisel and all the guys did a great job keeping Renshaw and Cav up front for the whole stage, it was a very impressive ride.”
The weather coming in for stage two on Monday is predicted to be far worse. The profile itself is “…not too hard,” said Peiper, “But assuming it’s safe enough to ride at all, there will most likely be a strong side wind on the coast toward the end.”
“On a good day we can control the peloton, but never the weather.”
Local team were Endura Racing but it wasn’t their day as they weren’t able to get in the break and the race was then shut down by HTC and Sky
Barry Markus, Vacansoleil – DCM “It was good but very cold! I hope I sprint well for the rest of the week. The Scottish crowd was very nice today.”
Russell Hampton, Sigma Sport-Specialized, Leader of the Skoda King of the Mountains Classification and Stage One Most Combative Rider – “That was really hard today. Most of the day was a headwind and a very big one at that so with only two men it was a hard day out. It was worth it in the end, really big for our team and the icing on the cake was to come away with a jersey.”
“It’s really good [to get the most combative rider], show that all that hard work pays off and I just hope that I can carry on for the rest of the week now.”
Jack Bauer of Endura racing signs an autograph for a young fan….
Ben Swift says on his team’s website Sky.com, “It was a tricky stage and at times hard to deal with the winds and the cross winds. The rain was pretty heavy at times which was hard on the legs. It also made the roads very slippy in places, particularly on the descents. There were a couple crashes along the way, including one that involved Steve. Thankfully he was ok.”
“All in all a stage that we are glad to get done and dusted. We knew it was likely that we would have to put in a lot of work at the front and we did a good job. It was a shame we could’t finish it off with the win. But we are happy with the performance and have myself and Geraint in the top 10 which was good news for the coming days.”
“Tomorrow looks like another sprint finish on the Blackpool sea front and one we’ll be looking forward to.”
Live Pictures
(If the slideshow is not visible in your browser, click here to view them on Flickr)
Results
1   Mark Cavendish   HTC Highroad      4h 41′ 6”
2   Mark Renshaw   HTC Highroad      st
3   Theo Bos   Rabobank      st
4Â Â Â Barry Markus**Â Â Â Vacansoleil – DCMÂ Â Â Â Â Â st
5   Geraint Thomas   Sky ProCycling      st
6   Robert Forster   UnitedHealthcare      st
7   Ben Swift   Sky ProCycling      st
8   Lars Boom   Rabobank      st
9   Roger Hammond   Team Garmin – Cervelo      st
10   Ian Wilkinson   Endura Racing      st
11   Mathew Hayman   Sky ProCycling      st
12   Alex Dowsett   Sky ProCycling      st
13   Ian Bibby   Motorpoint      st
14   Jonathan McEvoy**   Motorpoint      st
15   Stijn Neirynck   Topsport Vlaanderen      st
16   Boy Van Poppel   UnitedHealthcare      st
17   Andy Tennant   Rapha Condor – Sharp      st
18   Zak Dempster   Rapha Condor – Sharp      st
19   Linus Gerdemann   Leopard Trek      st
20   Chris Jones   UnitedHealthcare      st
21   Mark McNally**   An Post – Sean Kelly      st
22   Stijn Joseph   Topsport Vlaanderen      st
23   Mathieu Claude   Team Europcar      st
24   Daniel Schorn   Team NetApp      st
25   Michael Matthews**   Rabobank      st
26Â Â Â Jan-Bert Lindeman**Â Â Â Vacansoleil – DCMÂ Â Â Â Â Â st
27   Martijn Maaskant   Team Garmin – Cervelo      st
28   Daniel Lloyd   Team Garmin – Cervelo      st
29   Bartosz Huzarski   Team NetApp      st
30   Andreas Dietziker   Team NetApp      st
31   Michael Rogers   Sky ProCycling      st
32   Alex Rasmussen   HTC Highroad      st
33   Franck Bouyer   Team Europcar      st
34   Rory Sutherland   UnitedHealthcare      st
35   Stephen Cummings   Sky ProCycling      st
36   Jan Barta   Team NetApp      st
37   Julian Dean   Team Garmin – Cervelo      st
38   Gabriel Rasch   Team Garmin – Cervelo      st
39   Simon Richardson   Sigma Sport-Specialised      st
40   Bram Tankink   Rabobank      st
41   Gediminas Bagdonas   An Post – Sean Kelly      st
42   Richard Handley**   Team Raleigh      st
43   Jack Bauer   Endura Racing      st
44   Damien Gaudin   Team Europcar      st
45   Jelle Wallays**   Topsport Vlaanderen      st
46   Coen Vermeltfoort   Rabobank      st
47   Lieuwe Westra   Vacansoleil – DCM      st
48   Kristian House   Rapha Condor – Sharp      st
49   Alex Wetterall   Endura Racing      st
50   Paul Voss   Endura Racing      st
51   Bernhard Eisel   HTC Highroad      st
52   Liam Holohan   Team Raleigh      st
53   Andrew Fenn**   An Post – Sean Kelly      st
54   Tobyn Horton   Motorpoint      st
55   Cesare Benedetti   Team NetApp      st
56   Ronan McLaughlin   An Post – Sean Kelly      st
57   Graham Briggs   Rapha Condor – Sharp      st
58   Wouter Sybrandy   Sigma Sport-Specialised      st
59   Leopold Koenig   Team NetApp      st
60   Joost Posthuma   Leopard Trek      st
61   Alexandre Pichot   Team Europcar      st
62   Rene Mandri   Endura Racing      st
63   Peter Williams   Motorpoint      st
64   Dominic Klemme   Leopard Trek      st
65   Thor Hushovd   Team Garmin – Cervelo      st
66   Dan Craven   Rapha Condor – Sharp      st
67   Dan Fleeman   Team Raleigh      st
68   Thomas De Gendt   Vacansoleil – DCM      st
69   Jonathan Tiernan Locke   Rapha Condor – Sharp      st
70   Iker Camano   Endura Racing   at   0′ 18”
71   Will Clarke   Leopard Trek      st
72   Matt Brammeier   HTC Highroad   at   0′ 21”
73   Mark Cassidy   An Post – Sean Kelly      st
74   Lars Bak   HTC Highroad      st
75   Willem Wauters**   Vacansoleil – DCM   at   0′ 25”
76   Jamie Sparling   Team Raleigh      st
77   Rik Flens   Rabobank      st
78   Pieter Ghyllebert   An Post – Sean Kelly      st
79   Yohann Gene   Team Europcar      st
80   Russell Hampton   Sigma Sport-Specialised      st
81   Marcin Bialoblocki   Motorpoint      st
82   Steve Lampier   Sigma Sport-Specialised   at   0′ 33”
83   Gael Le Bellec   Team Raleigh      st
84   Tom Last   Sigma Sport-Specialised      st
85   Karl Menzies   UnitedHealthcare      st
86   James Sampson   Motorpoint      st
87   Jeroen Janssen   Team Raleigh      st
88   Giacomo Nizzolo**   Leopard Trek   at   1′ 2”
89   Kenny De Ketele   Topsport Vlaanderen   at   1′ 4”
90   Jonathan Clarke   UnitedHealthcare      st
91   Dominique Cornu   Topsport Vlaanderen      st
92   Tom Murray   Sigma Sport-Specialised      st
93   Preben Van Hecke   Topsport Vlaanderen      st
94   ANthony Charteau   Team Europcar   at   1′ 42”
The Prostate Cancer Charity Points Classification, after Stage One
1. Mark Cavendish (GB, HTC – Highroad) 15pts
2. Mark Renshaw (Aus, HTC – Highroad) 14pts
3. Theo Bos (Ned, Rabobank) 13pts
Skoda King of the Mountains Classification, after Stage One
1. Russell Hampton (GB, Sigma Sport – Specialized) 12pts
2. Pieter Ghyllebert (Bel, AN Post) 9pts
3. Alex Ramussen (Den, HTC – Highroad) 2pts
Yodel Sprints Classification, after Stage One
1. Pieter Ghyllebert (Bel, AN Post) 15pts
2. Russell Hampton (GB, Sigma Sport – Specialized) 9pts
3. Lars Boom (Ned, Rabobank) 3pts
UNISON Best Young Rider, after Stage One
1. Barry Markus (Ned, Vacansoleil DCM)
Live Updates
(If the text updates are not visible in your browser, go to http://twitter.com/aussielarry)
2011 Tour of Britain – Stage by Stage
1. Peebles to Dumfries, 170km (Sunday September 11)
2. Kendal to Blackpool, 138km (Monday September 12)
3. Stoke-on-Trent to Trentham Gardens, 140km (Tuesday September 13)
4. Welshpool to Caerphilly, 180km (Wednesday September 14)
5. Exeter to Exmouth, 180km (Thursday September 15)
6. Taunton to Wells, 146km (Friday September 16)
7. Bury St Edmunds to Sandringham, 200km (Saturday September 17)
8a. London 9km individual time trial (Sunday September 18)
8b. London 90km criterium (Sunday September 18)
