Having missed most of the classics season due to illness, Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) got the best possible return to competition when he won today's opening stage of the Tour of Turkey. The Brit stayed calm in a hectic finale before coming off the wheel of his lead-out man Alessandro Petacchi to take a convincing victory ahead of Elia Viviani (Cannondale) and Theo Bos whose Belkin team had dominated the finale.

Mark Cavendish has not had the spring season he had hoped for as a stomach virus took him out of both Ghent-Wevelgem and Scheldeprijs and the team had to reschedule his calendar several times. The final change saw him head to Turkey for the traditional sprint festival at the Tour of Turkey and that seems to be a wise decision.

Today Cavendish won the opening stage of the race when he held off Elia Viviani and Theo Bos in a hectic sprint in Alanya. The Manxman benefited from his strong Omega Pharma-Quick Step lead-out train that made sure to keep him in a good position in the finale.

However, he briefly seemed to be boxed when the Belkin team took control and when Mark Renshaw hit out to launch the sprint he had lost the final two links in the train, Alessandro Petacchi and Cavendish. Instead, it was Graeme Brown who took over with Bos on his wheel, giving the Dutch sprinter the perfect position for his final effort.

However, Petacchi managed to bring Cavendish into a solid position and when Bos launched his sprint, the door was open for Cavendish to make his move. The Brit easily passed the Dutchman to open a big gap and he had plenty of time to celebrate his first win since Tirreno-Adriatico when he crossed the line.

Elia Viviani proved that he is ready for the Giro when he made a late surge to just pass Bos before the line and so took second in a sprint where the rivals behind the superior were very close. However, no one had any match to the Brit's impressive speed, with André Greipel choosing to play the role of consummate teammate for Jonas Vangenechten after having recently broken his collarbone.

With the win, Cavendish takes the first leader's jersey in the race and he heads into the second stage equal on time with most of the peloton. With the route from Alanya to Kemer being completely flat, he will have a good chance to both defend his jersey and take another stage win in tomorrow's second leg of the race.

A flat opener

As it has been the case since 2012, the Tour of Turkey opened with a flat stage starting and finishing in Alanya. After doing most of a lap on the finishing circuit, the riders headed along the coast to a turning point from where they headed back to Alanya. On the way out, they went up a small climb but the rest of the stage was completely flat and the 144.7km stage ended with 4 laps of a finishing circuit in Alanya.

The race took off under beautiful sunshine, with Luca Wackermann (Lampre-Merida) being the only non-starter. With the stage always set to be decided in a bunch sprint, it was no surprise that the early attacked was established almost right from the gun.

The break is formed

Martin Wesemann (MTN-Qhubeka), Gijs Van Hoecke (Topsport Vlaanderen), Marc De Maar (UnitedHealthCare), and Mirac Kal (Torku Sekerspor) got clear early in the race and they immediately started to open a gap. As they crossed the finish line after their first small 12km lap, they were already 2.45 ahead.

At the 20km mark, the front quartet had opened the gap even further to 5.45 but that was as much as they would get as several teams were keen to set up a sprint. Rick Flens (Belkin), Kevin De Weert (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Gert Dockx (Lotto Belisol) started to chase and that trio soon got some help from Dmitriy Muravyev (Astana).

De Maar takes the mountains jersey

With 90km to go, they already had the advantage down to 2.40 as the riders were now heading up the day's only climb. De Maar attacked when they neared the top and he quickly opened a big gap to cross the line in first and become the first leader in the mountains classification. Van Hoecke was second while Wesemann and Kal were clearly struggling on the ascent.

De Maar waited for his companions and the front quartet found back together while Muravyev, Flens, De Weert and Docks continued their steady pace-setting. With 84km to go, Wesemann made a surprising solo attack but 5km further down the road, the four escapees were back together.

Lotto Belisol attack in the wind

The gap was kept relatively stable at around 2.40 as Dennis Van Winden (Belkin) briefly replaced his teammate Flens on the front. The peloton seemed to have everything under control while Wesemann beat Kal and De Maar in the intermediate sprint.

With 66km to go, the gap was down to 2.04 and 4km further down the road it was only 1.13. That was when the peloton hit a windy section, prompting Lotto Belisol to try a crosswind attack.

The break is caught

Adam Hansen and Vegard Breen took some massive turns on the front that caused the gap to come down to just 30 seconds 52km from the line. The peloton split in two, with many Neri Sottoli riders being caught in the second group, but when Lotto stopped, their effort, things got back together.

De Weert, Muravyev and Flens went back to work and the trio kept the gap stable at around 30 seconds for a little while. However, the escapees soon started to lose ground and 35km from the finish, it was back together just before the first Turkish Beauty sprint of the race.

Tedeschi tries

Jarl Salomein (Topsport Vlaanderen) tried to do a long sprint but he was passed by Robert Wagner (Belkin) and Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEDGE) with the former becoming the first leader in that special competition. As the pace again slowed down, Mirko Tedeschi (Neri Sottoli) took off and he managed to build an 18-second gap.

De Weert, Muravyev, Flens and Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural) continued their steady pace-setting and 28km from the line, the young Italian was back. The quartet kept their pace until the final 12km where the sprint trains started to ramp up the pace.

A chaotic sprint

The Cannondale and OPQS trains went head to head on the front, with Neri Sottoli also mixing it up with them. 8km from the line, Luca Paolini went to the front with his teammate Marco Haller on his wheel until Neri Sottoli and Caja Rural took over. With 5km to go, however, it was Orica-GreenEDGE who emerged as the strongest, with the Australians'  Jens Moruis stringing out the peloton.

Paolini repeated his small trick when he moved to the front with Haller inside the final 2km until Bardiani and Wanty took over. Then the Lotto train took control with Greipel doing a lot of work to set up Vangenechten for the sprint.

A battle between the trains

Lotto and OPQS went head to head in a brutal battle between two of the best lead-out trains and it was the latter that came out on top. Gert Steegmans, Renshaw, Petacchi and Cavendish seemed to have everything under control when they were passed by the Belkin formation of Wagner, Barry Markus, Brown and Bos.

Renshaw tried to move ahead of them but as he had lost his teammates, Markus and Brown ended up giving Bos the perfect lead-out. However, Cavendish was well-placed and when he launched his sprint, he easily took his first win in the Turkish race.