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United States | Midwest | Ohio >> Tour Britain Stage 1: André Greipel of Lotto Soudal wins stage 1 after a crash hit bunch finish

Tour Britain Stage 1: André Greipel of Lotto Soudal wins stage 1 after a crash hit bunch finish

André Greipel of Lotto Soudal won stage 1 of the Tour of Britain after a crash hit bunch finish. Caleb Ewan was second and Ramon Sinkeldam third

After a crash involving Cavendish on the final corner, Greipel sprints to victory ahead of Caleb Ewan of Australia.

Tour of Britain Stage 1: Cavendish caught in a crash with 1km to go

Favourites Elia Viviani and Danny van Poppel were caught up in final corner crash when battling it out through a tight and technical final kilometre in Castle Douglas, but were unable to contest the bunch kick as a number of top sprinters, including Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), came to grief.

The riders were welcomed to the start line in Glasgow ahead of the opening stage of the Tour of Britain. With the absence of rain the teams rolled off to immediately begin racing and within the first 10kilometres of the stage, five riders quickly jumped clear of the peloton and opened up a significant advantage.

The escapees, Jonathan McEvoy (NFTO), Tom Moses (JLT- Condor), Pete Williams (ONE ProCycling), Emeil Wasten (An-Post) and Jasper Bovenhuis (An-Post) worked well together to opened up an impressive gap of three minutes and 45 seconds after just 15kilometres of racing.

Rain began to fall as the peloton weaved it’s way through the country roads and over the King of the Mountain primes, as the kilometres ticked down ORICA-BikeExchange sent Amets Txurruka to the head of the peloton to contribute to the chasing to gradually reel in the leaders.

Almost one rider from each big team worked on the front of the peloton slowly closing in on the five escapees. As the race entered the final 15kilometres their advantage plummeted down to just 30seconds with the peloton biding their time to catch them just in time for a bunch finish.

The main sprinter’s teams alined at the head of the peloton with ORICA-BikeExchanged tucked in the wheels looking for the right moment to begin their lead-out.

Luke Mezgec, the final lead-out man for Ewan dropped him off on to the wheel of Greipel inside the final 300metres. Ewan launched out of the last corner and opened up his sprint challenging for the victory, but in the end Greipel proved to be the fastest on the day to claim the first victory of the tour.

Tomorrow’s stage features over 3,000 metres of climbing within the 188kilometre stage from Carlisle to Kendal.

Click here for tomorrow's LIVE STREAMING and STAGE PREVIEW.

LIVE STREAMING video should get underway at around 13:00pm United Kingdom (GMT), 14:00pm Europe (CET), 08:00 am U.S. Eastern Time (EST), 05:00am U.S. Pacific Time (PST)

Tour of Britain Stage 1 Top 20 Results

1 GREIPEL André LTS GER B:10″ 00″
2 *EWAN Caleb OBE AUS B:06″ ‘ ‘
3 SINKELDAM Ramon TGA NED B:04″ ‘ ‘
4 RICHEZE Ariel Maximiliano EQS ARG ‘ ‘
5 NIZZOLO Giacomo TFS ITA ‘ ‘
6 RUFFONI Nicola BAR ITA ‘ ‘
7 VON HOFF Steele ONE AUS ‘ ‘
8 *LATHAM Christopher WGN GBR ‘ ‘
9 MCLAY Daniel GBR GBR ‘ ‘
10 DEBUSSCHERE Jens LTS BEL ‘ ‘
11 SIMION Paolo BAR ITA ‘ ‘
12 VEREECKEN Nicolas SKT BEL ‘ ‘
13 GONCALVES Domingos CJR POR ‘ ‘
14 *SAEZ BENITO Hector CJR ESP ‘ ‘
15 *WOOD Oliver GBR GBR ‘ ‘
16 *ZABEL Rick BMC GER ‘ ‘
17 BLAIN Alexandre MGT FRA ‘ ‘
18 VAN BAARLE Dylan CDT NED ‘ ‘
19 RUBIO HERNANDEZ Diego CJR ESP ‘ ‘
20 *ZEPUNTKE Ruben CDT GER ‘ ‘

VIDEO: Tour Of Britain Stage 1 Final Kilometres

Tour Britain Stage 1: André Greipel of Lotto Soudal wins stage 1 after a crash hit bunch finish