NESSEBAR, Bulgaria, May 8 (Reuters) – France’s Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) outsprinted Denmark’s Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM) to win the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia in Burgas on Friday after a crash near the line marred the bunch sprint finish.
The crash happened around 600 metres from the finish, leaving less than 10 riders to battle it out for the win, and Magnier pipped the Dane on the line to take his first Grand Tour stage victory, with Briton Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling Team) coming in third.
“I’m so proud of the team and also my performance,” Magnier said.
“It was really hectic in the final because it was a pretty easy day, everybody was really fresh and we knew the narrow road in the final would be tricky so we tried to get in good position.”
The flat 147-km ride from Nessebar, the first of three stages in Bulgaria, was a relatively calm affair until the hectic finish.
An early two-rider breakaway of Italian Manuele Tarozzi and Spain’s Diego Pablo Sevilla were kept under close control by the peloton and were reeled in with 22-km to the line.
Pre-race favourite Jonas Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike team played it safe near the back of the peloton leaving others to jostle for position at the front coming into the final kilometre.
Magnier was at the front with two teammates when several riders went down just behind the leaders, with the rest of the peloton blocked behind the fallers who included Australian Kaden Groves, who would have been expected to figure in the race for the line.
Italy’s Jonathan Milan was one of the hot favourites to take the sprint, and he had Lidl-Trek colleague Max Walscheid leading the way but Milan was unable to respond and had to settle for fourth.
Magnier will wear the leader’s jersey for Saturday’s stage two which takes the riders 221-km from Burgas to Veliko Tarnovo.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, Editing by Toby Davis and Christian Radnedge)
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