photo credits @ Tour of Britain
Andre Greipel sprinted to the opening stage victory in Scotland, to grab the Yellow Jersey presented by Eisberg, heading Caleb Ewan and Ramon Sinkeldam on the 600-meter drag to the line in the town of Castle Douglas.
The Lotto Soudal team set up the German national champion perfect, leading Greipel safely through the final corner at the head of the peloton, with Jens Debusschere providing the perfect leadout at the end of the 161-kilometer stage from Glasgow.
“It is really nice to start off this tour with a victory. We have reached our goal already from the first day. Everything else is a bonus”, said Greipel after celebrating his fifth Tour of Britain stage win having also won stages in the 2010 and 2015 editions of Britain’s biggest professional cycle race.
Greipel avoided a final crash further back in the peloton on the final corner, removing the likes of Mark Cavendish, Elia Viviani and Dylan Groenewegen from contention.
The stage win and time bonus gives Greipel a 1-second lead over Jasper Bovenhuis, who picked up the time bonuses at all three of the day’s intermediate Yodel Sprints from a breakaway to sit second overall, with Ewan third.
The An Post Chain Reaction rider took the Yodel Sprints jersey from a five-rider breakaway that former early on while the race lapped Glasgow in front of packed crowds throughout the city centre.
Alongside teammate Emiel Wastyn, ONE Pro Cycling’s Peter Williams, NFTO’s Johnny McEvoy and JLT Condor’s Tom Moses the quintet spent the majority of Stage One out front, but a watchful peloton never let them gain more than 4-minutes.
With the Stage One victory Greipel also takes the Chain Reaction Cycles Points Jersey while Williams is the SKODA King of the Mountains jersey and Adnams Best British Rider overall.
The Tour of Britain resumes with Stage Two on Monday 5 September from Carlisle to Kendal, through the heart of the Lake District including the Category One climb of The Struggle with 30-kilometres to go. The stage finishes in Kendal atop the 700-metre climb of Beast Banks, as used in the 2013 Tour of Britain when Gerald Ciolek took the victory.
Top 20 Finishers
1 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal 3:52:40 2 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-BikeExchange 3 Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 4 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Etixx – Quick-Step 5 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 6 Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani CSF 7 Steele Von Hoff (Aus) ONE Pro Cycling 8 Christopher Latham (GBr) Team WIGGINS 9 Daniel Mclay (GBr) Fortuneo – Vital Concept 10 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto Soudal 11 Paolo Simion (Ita) Bardiani CSF 12 Nicolas Vereecken (Bel) An Post-Chainreaction 13 Domingos Gonçalves (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 14 Hector Saez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 15 Oliver Wood (GBr) Great Britain 16 Rick Zabel (Ger) BMC Racing Team 17 Alexandre Blain (Fra) Madison Genesis 18 Dylan Van Baarle (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac 19 Diego Rubio (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 20 Ruben Zepuntke (Ger) Cannondale-Drapac
General classification after stage 1
1 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal 3:52:30 2 Jasper Bovenhuis (Ned) An Post-Chainreaction 0:00:01 3 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-BikeExchange 0:00:04 4 Peter Williams (GBr) ONE Pro Cycling 5 Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:00:06 6 Jonathan Mcevoy (GBr) NFTO 0:00:08 7 Thomas Moses (GBr) JLT Condor 0:00:09 8 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:00:10 9 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 10 Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani CSF 11 Steele Von Hoff (Aus) ONE Pro Cycling 12 Christopher Latham (GBr) Team WIGGINS 13 Daniel Mclay (GBr) Fortuneo – Vital Concept 14 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto Soudal 15 Paolo Simion (Ita) Bardiani CSF 16 Nicolas Vereecken (Bel) An Post-Chainreaction 17 Domingos Gonçalves (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 18 Hector Saez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 19 Oliver Wood (GBr) Great Britain 20 Rick Zabel (Ger) BMC Racing Team
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