Cavendish sprints to victory in first stage of British tour

Mark Cavendish made a winning start to the 2011 Tour of Britain as the Manxman prevailed in a sprint finish on the opening stage between Peebles and Dumfries.

Cavendish, who has won 20 stages of the Tour de France, including five this year, took the green jersey having battled both his rivals and the unforgiving weather and coming out on top in a bunch sprint in Dumfries.

In high winds and driving rain, Cavendish was helped home by his HTC Highroad lead-out man Mark Renshaw, making a perfect start to a race he last contested in 2007. Cavendish came home in a time of four hours, 41 minutes and six seconds, with Australian Renshaw in close attendance in second and Holland’s Theo Bos (Rabobank) in third.

“It’s incredible to win the first stage and get the leaders jersey,” said Cavendish. “If the weather had been better we would have been a bit quicker but I think it would still have been the same result. Hopefully it will be a sprint again tomorrow. I am going to try and defend the jersey and get another stage win.”

Cavendish was only given the green light to race in Scotland after being given special dispensation by world governing body the UCI to compete despite pulling out of the Vuelta a Espana. UCI rules state that anyone who pulls out of one race is unable to compete in another while the first race is ongoing, and the Vuelta overlaps with the Tour of Britain by one day.

However, the 26-year-old was granted his place in the field and wasted no time in putting on a show for the fans that lined the road on the 170.3km ride out of Peebles.

“We had wicked support today,” Cavendish said. “The amount of cheers and banners along the stage was brilliant. It’s very different to when I last raced here in 2007. This event is certainly growing.”

The stage was led for the most part by Russell Hampton (Sigma Sport-Specialized) and Pieter Ghyllebert (An Post), who worked together in an early breakaway to open up a six-minute lead over the peloton.

But the HTC Highroad and Sky teams worked in tandem at the head of the peloton to close the gap, catching the leaders with less than 10km to go and setting up Cavendish for his trademark finish.

Cavendish was joined in the top ten by a host of fellow Britons, with Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) in fifth, Ben Swift (Team Sky) seventh, Roger Hammond (Garmin Cervelo) ninth, just ahead of Ian Wilkinson (Endura Racing).