Sir Bradley Wiggins finishes almost 15 minutes down in 96th
Friday 1 May 2015 18:24, UK
Team Sky’s Lars Petter Nordhaug sprinted to victory on an attritional first stage of the Tour de Yorkshire in which local favourite Ben Swift crashed out.
Nordhaug formed part of a five-man lead group with just over 25km remaining and went on to beat Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) into second place and Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) into third in Scarborough.
Ten, six and four bonus seconds were on offer to the top three, meaning Nordhaug becomes the race’s first leader and opens up a four-second gap over Voeckler at the top of the general classification, with Rossetto two seconds further back in third.
Swift, who is from Yorkshire and started the race as Team Sky's leader, had to abandon and was later taken to hospital for X-rays after falling on a descent around 50km from the finish which had been made slippery by a rain shower just minutes earlier.
Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin) also left the race after falling six minutes behind the peloton midway through the stage. The German sprinter has not raced in almost three months due to illness and his lack of fitness was exposed on the day's barrage of short and sharp climbs.
Sir Bradley Wiggins, who was making his debut for his new team, WIGGINS, was off the pace all day and ended up finishing 14min 52sec down on the winner, in 96th place.
The stage, which began in Bridlington, was watched by thousands of fans who lined the roadsides all along the 174km route.
Nordhaug said: “With the spectators here, it’s massive. I feel I am riding at home for Sky [a British team], so this is really great.
“The team was so strong today. They were riding all day to make it hard. We were riding for Ben Swift but I heard he was crashing pretty hard, so that’s a shame, but then I had to try and do something.
“This stage was a lot harder than I thought. That was because we were riding hard as a team. It will be hard the next two days.”
Team Sky set the pace on the front of the peloton all day but they cranked up the tempo on the last of five categorised climbs, the Cote de Robin Hood's Bay, and the five-man lead group duly formed, with Samuel Sanchez (BMC Racing) and Philip Deignan (Team Sky) joining Nordhaug, Voeckler and Rossetto.
Team-mates Nordhaug and Deignan repeatedly attacked the other three in the closing 5km but could not avoid a group sprint, yet it didn't matter, as Nordhaug had little trouble in sealing a hard-earned victory.
The three-day race continues on Saturday with a 174km second stage from Selby to York.
Stage one result
1 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor) Team Sky, 4:22:38
2 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Europcar, same time
3 Stephane Rossetto (Fra) Cofidis, st
4 Samuel Sanchez (Esp) BMC Racing, st
5 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky, st
6 Greg van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing, +1:10
7 Anthony Turgis (Fra) Cofidis, st
8 Erick Rowsell (GB) Madison Genesis, st
9 Richard Handley (GB) JLT Condor, st
10 Huub Duyn (Ned) Team Roompot Oranje Peloton, st
General classification
1 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor) Team Sky, 4:22:28
2 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Europcar, +4secs
3 Stephane Rossetto (Fra) Cofidis, +6
4 Samuel Sanchez (Esp) BMC Racing, +10
5 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky, same time
6 Anthony Turgis (Fra) Cofidis, +1:18
7 Greg van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing, +1:20
8 Erick Rowsell (GB) Madison Genesis, st
9 Richard Handley (GB) JLT Condor, st
10 Huub Duyn (Ned) Team Roompot Oranje Peloton, st
