Cycling: Jens Debusschere from Lotto-Soudal won the first stage of Tirreno-Adriatico in a chaotic final sprint caused by a fall in the last meters. The Belgian pro edged out Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18).
The relatively short flat stage of 153 km was poor in highlights for long stretches. After only five kilometers, a group of seven riders broke away from the field and was able to stay in the lead until 15km from the finish line. The leading group consisted of Edoardo Zardini (CSF), Danilo Wyss (BMC), Cristiano Salerno (Bora-Argon 18), Jorge Camilo Castiblanco (Colombia), Carlos Quintero (Colombia), Martijn Keizer (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Patrick Konrad (Bora -Argon 18).
In the meantime, the breakaway group had a lead of more than six minutes and of course the seven made up the two mountain classifications among themselves. The points went to Wyss, Konrad and Zardini. After about 80km, the field, led by Etixx-Quick Step and Tinkoff-Saxo, started to close the gap to the leading group - when it came to the final circuit, the escapees were only 90 seconds ahead of the field.
Several small falls caused a bit of excitement over the last 20km, but without shaking up the field too much, until it really banged again just a few meters from the finish line. Elia Viviani pulled the sprint and collided with Mark Cavendish's rear wheel in the process. While the Brit was just able to stay on the bike, Viviani crashed and several riders with him - including Nikias Arndt from Giant-Alpecin, who had a promising position. In the end, Jens Debusschere took advantage of the confusion and sprinted to victory in front of Peter Sagan and Sam Bennet.
Tirreno-Adriatico, 1th stage, final result
[easy table th=“0″]1th, Jens Debusschere, BEL, Lotto Soudal, 3:30:18
2.,Peter Sagan,SVK,Tinkoff Saxo,
3nd,Sam Bennett,IRL,Bora-Argon 18,
4th,Alexander Porsev,RUS,Team Katusha,
5th,Tyler Farrar,USA,MTN – Qhubeka,
6.,Magnus Cort Nielsen,DEN,Orica GreenEdge,
7.,Roger Kluge,GER,IAM,
8th, Nicola Ruffoni, ITA, Bardiani CSF,
9th,Zakkari Dempster,AUS,Bora-Argon 18,
10.,Mark Renshaw,AUS,Etixx – Quick Step,
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