Tour of Britain

André Greipel sets pace to win opening stage of Tour of Britain

André Greipel sprints to victory on Blackpool Promenade
• German pips Manuel Belletti and Greg Henderson

Students of the fractious relationship between Mark Cavendish and André Greipel would have smiled wryly as the big German nicknamed "The Gorilla" sprinted up Blackpool's Promenade to take the 82-mile opening stage of the Tour of Britain, taking the race leader's jersey thanks to the 10sec time bonus awarded for the stage win. Close behind were the Italian Manuel Belletti and Sky's New Zealand sprinter Greg Henderson.

Cavendish is unlikely to lose sleep over it, but there was a neat symmetry to Greipel's 20th win of the season: the Manxman took two stage wins in the Tour of Spain on Thursday and Friday while his team-mate and rival in the HTC-Columbia team responded with a stage victory in the Columbia leader's home Tour, with Cavendish's island home just over the horizon.

Greipel, now 28, has rarely seemed settled at HTC or its predecessor T-Mobile since Cavendish's emergence as a stage winner in the major Tours in 2008. The pair fell out at Cavendish's very first race as a pro in 2007, and according to the British rider's autobiography matters deteriorated from then on, even when Cavendish held back to let the German win a stage of the Giro d'Italia in 2008.

Since then the team management have tended to keep them apart, and the upshot was that last year Greipel landed 21 victories including five stage wins in the Tour of Spain. The German was upset at being left out of the Milan-San Remo Classic in March, equally disgruntled at remaining on the sidelines during the Tour de France, and announced in August that he will leave HTC at the end of this season for the Belgian squad Omega-Pharma-Lotto.

This morning the German showed his hand within a mile and a half of the stage start in Rochdale, landing the first intermediate sprint. Just behind him was the rider who could prove a strong bet for a home win this year, Russell Downing of Team Sky. With victories last year in the professional Tour of Ireland and this year in the Tour of Wallonia, Downing is a past master at winning short stage races: every second counts, and the intermediate sprints in the British Tour carry bonus seconds, if not as many as at the stage finishes.

The stage through the Trough of Bowland and back on to the flat roads leading into Blackpool was marked by a threatening three-man escape, including the talented young Australian Richie Porte and the Kiwi Jack Bauer of the British team Endura Sport, who led the Giro d'Italia earlier this year and is one of many riders linked with Team Sky for 2011. They achieved a lead of 5min30sec after escaping during pouring rain in the early miles, and Porte remained clear until 12 miles to go when he was swept up by the peloton, where Sky and Greipel's HTC had been prominent leading the chase.

Today in the Vuelta, meanwhile, Cavendish took a back seat as the field tackled a mountain stage in Cantabria, livened up by an early attack from the Scot David Millar, who will support "Cav" in the Great Britain team at the world championships on 3 October. Millar remained in front until just two miles from the mountain top finish at Peña Cabarga, where stage victory went to the Spaniard Joaquim Rodríguez.

The race leader Igor Antón of Spain crashed heavily as the field sped towards the foot of the final climb, suffering severe abrasions, leaving him with no choice but to abandon. The red race leader's jersey is now held by the Italian Vincenzo Nibali.

Misschien ook interessant: