Greipel grabs opening stage
HTC-Columbia's André Greipel underlined his status as race favourite by taking the opening stage of the Tour of Britain in Blackpool.
By Jonathan Turner
Last Updated: 11/09/10 9:42pm
HTC-Columbia's André Greipel underlined his status as race favourite by taking the opening stage of the Tour of Britain in Blackpool.
Greipel's team and Team Sky had been prominent throughout the 132.6 kilometres route from Rochdale and helped to reel in a three-man break which had poached a lead of over five minutes.
That ensured a bunch finish alongside the world famous Pleasure Beach and the German, who had punctured with 8km to go, was the main benificiary as he powered to victory to become the first overall leader.
Manuel Belletti (Colnago-CSF Inox) was second, with Team Sky's Greg Henderson in third.
"It's always something special to win the first stage because you get the leader's jersey as well," Greipel told www.tourofbritain.co.uk. "This was our main goal to win the stage and we achieved it.
"Of course, the weather was not the best today - one time it was warm and another time it was cold, then raining, but I'm happy the sun came out for the finish, so a good day for us."
The story of the stage had seen a three-man break of Richie Porte (Saxo Bank), Wout Poels (Vacansoleil) and Jack Bauer (Endura) pull clear of the peloton and open up an advantage of 5:35 at one point.
That was the cue for Team Sky, HTC-Columbia and Skil-Shimano to move to the front of the peloton and the gap soon started to come down.
As the pressure increased, Bauer was dropped from the leading group and Porte was the last man caught with around 20km to go.
Porte at least has the consolation of heading the sprint standings while Poels is the early leader in the King of the Mountains classification.
