The opening stage of the 103rd Tour de France came down to a bunch sprint in Utah Beach and Mark Cavendish of Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka took an incredible stage victory and also secured his, and the African Team’s, first ever yellow jersey of the Tour de France.
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The African Team revealed that at the start in Mont-Saint-Michel, it had a clear plan of delivering Cavendish to the sprint finale with the hope of taking the stage victory and the yellow jersey. The 188km stage to Utah Beach suited the sprinters perfectly and so the 5 rider breakaway that did go clear early on, stood no chance of making it to the finish first.
Etixx-Quickstep and Lotto-Soudal did the lion’s share of the pace making from the peloton while Team Di Data rode near the front, out of trouble, during the nervy stage which saw a number of crashes and splits in the peloton caused by crosswinds. With 5km to go, the African Team started to put their stage plan into action.
Moving up the left side of the peloton, Bernhard Eisel led Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Mark Renshaw and Mark Cavendish to the head of the bunch. The African Team was shoulder to shoulder with the Belgian Etixx squad, as they had the stage favourite, Marcel Kittel, at the rear of their train.
After two powerful turns by Janse van Rensburg and Boasson Hagen respectively, Team Di Data edged ahead as Renshaw led under the 1 kilometre to go sign. Cavendish waited in the wheel of Kittel who had to start sprinting early, before Manxman burst out of the German’s slipstream with 200m to go, to take a historical victory.
“This is a very special win”, said Mark Cavendish. “It is the first time I have had the honour of wearing the yellow jersey. What a special moment to do it, with such special people.”
Cavendish commended his team mates saying that their efforts contributed to the victory.
Team Principle Douglas Ryder that winning the first stage of the 2016 Tour de France “is just unbelievable for the team”.
“For all the riders to work like they did [in the first stage], to commit to one objective and one goal and then to pull it off, is sensational. To wear our first yellow jersey in our second Tour de France and win the first stage, after an incredible start to the season where we had a hugely successful Dauphine, is an amazing moment for the team.”
One of the team’s Tour de France goals is to put 5000 kids on bicycles through their
#BicyclesChangeLives campaign. (More about Qhubeka 5000 and #BicyclesChangeLives)
via Bicycling » Tour de France http://ift.tt/29elVzj
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