Wout Van Aert has won the opening stage of the Tour of Britain today in an uphill sprint, with two Irish riders in the top 20 and clearly intent on making their mark.
Irish international Rory Townsend (Canyon dhb SunGod) put in a great final sprint and took 5th on the stage. Meanwhile, Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) is clearly keen to do well in one of his last races as he was 16th and gained some time on many of the other GC men.
The 180.8km stage from Penzance to Bodmin came down to a sprint on the uphill finish after the stage-long breakaway was caught with about 25km to go. In the sprint to the line Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) attacked with about 500 metres to go.
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However, while the world champion Alaphilippe put in a sustained effort, he was tracked by Van Aert (Jumbo Visma) and several of the Ineos Grenadiers riders. A combination of that attack by Alaphilippe, the speed of the sprint and the incline saw splits appearing in the reduced peloton.
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Van Aert took the victory from Nils Eekhoff (Team DSM), Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar) and Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers). After the top four there was a two second gap to the next 14 riders, with Townsend at the front of those in 5th place.
Dan Martin was also among the 14 men who lost just two seconds, placing 16th, with those 23rd to 35th losing 12 seconds - that group including Nicolas Roche. The gaps after that were much bigger. Indeed, the bunch effectively numbered just 45 riders.
Team DSM rider Roche made that reduced peloton and while he was on the wrong side of some splits in the sprint to the line, he is still well placed after the opening stage. Townsend and Martin also set up for a good ride in the days ahead.
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