Mark Cavendish filled one of the very few gaps on his palmarès when he showed a clean pair of heels to his rivals on the final straight at Utah Beach to claim his 27th stage victory at the Tour de France and with it his first yellow jersey.
"I’m so happy. I really wanted to win here today," Cavendish said. "The lads were incredble. Edvald [Boasson Hagen] did the most incredible turn at the end. He rode out of skin today. I’m so happy to do this for Dimension Data today. There’s no better way to highlight the Quebeka charity.
"It's quite emotional. This is the only jersey in cycling I’ve not worn. I’ve had all three points jerseys, the worlds jerseys and the leaders jerseys in the Giro and the Vuelta and now this. I just wanted to win the stage and to wear this jersey is an honour. I’ve built my whole career on this race."
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Well protected by his Dimension Data teammates coming into the final kilometre, where a strong crosswind was a complicating factor, Cavendish jumped onto Peter Sagan's wheel when Tinkoff's world champion accelerated from 200 metres out. As the heavily tipped Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) began to come through on Sagan's left, Cavendish went on the Slovak's right and arrowed clear of his rivals, crossing the line two bike lengths ahead of Kittel, with Sagan third and Lotto-Soudal's André Greipel in fourth.
The success, which was Cavendish's first major objective for the season before he targets an Olympic medal in Rio de Janeiro and a second world road title in Qatar in October, was also the first time the Manxman had beaten Kittel in a head-to-head sprint and he could have chosen no better moment to put an end to that hoodoo as well as to suggestions that he's past his best.
As is always the case, the Tour's opening stage was a nervy affair in parts and saw several riders hit the deck. The most notable was two-time champion Alberto Contador, who went down hard after BMC's Brent Bookwalter lost control coming out of a roundabout at high speed, the impact also taking down Sky's Luke Rowe. Although the Spaniard suffered cuts and grazes to his back and right shoulder, he remounted quickly and finished in the pack led in by Cavendish.
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