Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) has found back to his winning ways after he won today’s first stage of the Tour du Poitou-Charentes in a bunch sprint. The Brit finished off a perfect Omega Pharma-Quick Step showing by holding off Maxime Daniel (Ag2r) and Roy Jans (Wanty) to claim the first leader’s jersey in the four-day race.

Two weeks ago Mark Cavendish returned to competition following his Tour de France crash when he worked in a domestique role in the Tour de l’Ain. Two days ago he did his first bunch sprint in the Vattenfall Cyclassics where he finished an encouraging fifth.

Today he finally took the elusive first victory when he won the first stage of the Tour du Poitou-Charentes in a sprint. After his Omega Pharma-Quick Step had worked hard for most of a very windy stage, he was given a perfect lead-out by Mark Renshaw and easily held off Maxime Daniel and Roy Jans to take his first win since the Tour de Suisse in June.

The 28th Tour du Poitou-Charentes kicked off with a 192.4km stage from Jarnac to La Ronde. The smaller climbs featured in the first half of the race but the roads were predominantly flat and unless the wind would wreak havoc on the peloton, a sprint finish was expected.

The riders took a slightly delayed start under sunny conditions but they were greeted with several showers along the way. A Wallonie rider was the first to try his hand but in the opening part, FDJ controlled the situation.

Very early, a four riders group got clear when Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Thomas Rostollan (La Pomme Marseille), Jonathan Dufrasne (Wallonie) and Kevin Van Melsen (Wanty) attacked. The peloton didn’t react and after 17km of racing, the quartet had built an advantage of 2 minutes.

When Rostollan had beaten Van Melsen and Burghardt in the first intermediate sprint, the latter stopped working and for most of the day, he was just rolling along at the back of the group. His companions tried to persuade him to contribute to the pace-setting but he refused to help keep the break alive.

While Van Melsen beat Dufrasne and Burghardt in the first KOM sprint, Omega Pharma-Quick Step had started to control the situation and for most of the day, they kept the gap stable around the 2-minute mark. Kevin De Weert and Julien Vermote did the early work for the Belgian team.

Rostollan briefly punctured out of the breakaway but his escapees decided to wait for him. Despite having done no work in the group, Burghardt beat Van Melsen and Dufrasne in the second KOM sprint, much to the displeasure of his companions.

Moments later, Dufrasne launched an attack and as the escape failed to cooperate, he started to build an advantage. This prompted Burghardt to react and he finally started to contribute to the pace-setting.

Dufrasne was brought back in time for the third KOM sprint where Van Melsen beat the Wallonie rider and Burghardt to take the first mountains jersey. The Wanty rider suffered an untimely punctured but his companions waited for him.

With 66km to go, OPQS had brought the gap down to 1.50 and this was the signal for Cofidis to kick into action. When they had brought the gap down to less than a minute, Sander Helven (Topsport) attacked.

Rostollan beat Dufrasne and Burghardt in the second intermediate sprint and moments later, Helven had bridged the gap. The group managed to extend their advantage to a minute before Neri Sottoli and Roubaix took over the pace-setting.

They kept the gap stable at around a minute and then OPQS went back to work, They got assistance from FDJ and later Europcar also lend a hand.

With 40km to go, the break was brought back and Cofidis and OPQS were now setting the pace. Their hard pace caused the peloton to split as they hit a crosswind section while two Colombia riders made a fruitless attack.

FDJ hit the front of the very nervous peloton but a crash caused them to slow down a bit. Nontheless, they remained on the front and lots of riders were dropped in the windy conditions.

Sylvain Chavanel (IAM) beat Jan Bakelants (OPQS) and Jeremy Roy (FDJ) to score important bonus seconds and the Neri Sottoli took over the pace-setting. They got some assistance from Cofidis but inside the final 7km, OPQS proved their strength by hitting the front.

They were briefly passed by FDJ but in the end, they regained control before Renshaw set up Cavendish for the win.

With the victory, Cavendish also takes the first leader’s jersey and he takes a 4-second advantage into tomorrow’s second stage. After a flat first half, the riders tackle three categorized climbs in in the finale. An uncategorized ascent inside the final 10km could be a challenge but another sprint finish is expected.