In the shadow of Vesuvius, Mark Cavendish (Omega Phaarma-Quick Step) burst across the finish line ahead of the Italian Elia Viviani (Cannondale) and the French champion Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) to win today’s first stage of the 2013 Giro d’Italia (Naples – Naples, 130 km).

 
The win brought him the first Maglia Rosa of the race. After the stage, he spoke to the press.
 
“I’m very happy today. It’s not easy to ride at the front, on climbs, curves and cobble stones, at high speed. But my team did so all day. They delivered me to the front at the right moment and thankfully I had the speed to finish it off.”
 
Sunday’s Team Time Trial will prove a stern test according to Cavendish. “We’ll try our best. There are some specialist team time trial teams here. At Tirreno-Adriatico, we had a specialist team with [World Time Trial champion] Tony Martin, who rode about 15 km of the 18 km,” Cavendish said with a smile. “He’s not here, but we’ll do everything we can to keep it out of respect for the jersey.”
 
The opening stage was marred by a crash inside the final 2 km but Cavendish had no harsh words about the parcours. “There were one or two crashes but I don’t think it was excessively dangerous. It’s nice to have a circuit race, and it was a really nice circuit today. I really enjoyed myself. I didn’t expect so many people. I didn’t expect so many people.”