Tour of Britain (st. 1)

Sanz takes 10th in Tour of Britain's opening mass sprint; final crash didn't affect any of the Movistar Team riders. Kittel (GIA) first leader

Picture (c): Tour of Britain

In front of impressive crowds, the riders of the 11th Tour of Britain covered their opening 104 kilometers under control by the sprinters’ squads in an urban route -nine laps in Liverpool, right on the Merseyside- that only brought a small crash into the final straight, not affecting the Movistar Team riders.

Enrique Sanz (10th) was the fastest of the six Blues in the bunch kick, dominated by German André Greipel (GIA). Alex Dowsett (21st) didn’t lose sight of the front in today’s finish, either – his will be a committed effort to get over the slopes of The Tumble (Tuesday) and complicated stages before Sunday’s more favouring TT in London, on the final day of racing.

Before all of that, stage two will take the riders into Welsh turf, over 200km to Llandudno including the Marine Drive (Cat-2) climb just 5k from the finish plus a steep slope in between.