Fabio Jakobsen wins opening sprint at the BinckBank Tour

Fabio Jakobsen (Quick-Step Floors) won a crash marred final sprint in wet conditions

The Dutchman was the fastest in the hectic final sprint and crossed the line just ahead of Marcel Kittel and Caleb Ewan.

The first stage of the race was a flat 177 kilometres between Heerenveen and Bolsward in the Netherlands.

The day started with a breakaway of six men that included Manuele Boaro, Julius van den Berg and Elmas Reinders and they built a lead of just over three minutes.

The breakaway was reeled in by the chasing peloton with just 10 kilometres to go.

Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana) was involved in a crash caused by the wet conditions.

Rompoot-Nederlandse Loterij's Jan Willem Van Schip attacked but was reeled back shortly after,

Sprinters team Sunweb, Mitchelton-Scott and Quick-Step Floors took the lead  and with two kilometres to go there was another crash in the bunch.

Fabio Jakobsen (Quick-Step Floors) was well positioned by his sprint train and showed he was the strongest man in the final metres, taking the victory ahead of Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) and Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott).

The Dutchman of Quick-Step Floors also took the lead in the overall classification.

VIDEO: 2018 BinckBank Tour Stage 1 Highlights

2018 BinckBank Tour Stage 1 Top 10

5 Max Walscheid (Ger) Team Sunweb   
6 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo   
7 Matteo Pelucchi (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe   
8 Timothy Dupont (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert   
9 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo   
10 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team  

2018 BinckBank Tour GC after Stage 1

1 Fabio Jakobsen (Ned) Quick-Step Floors 4:00:50 
2 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:04 
3 Elmar Reinders (Ned) Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij 0:00:05 
4 Dries De Bondt (Bel) Veranda's Willems Crelan   
5 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:06 
6 Manuele Boaro (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:07 
7 Dimitri Peyskens (Bel) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic   
8 Matej Mohoric (Slo) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:09 
9 Thomas Sprengers (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise   
10 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) Team Sky 0:00:10