Chris Froome finished safely in a reduced lead group after emerging from a crash-marred finish to the opening stage at the Ruta del Sol.

The Brit got his season under way in Andalucia and finished 14th in Hinojos, two places behind team-mate Pete Kennaugh after a frantic and rolling finish.

Pim Ligthart (Lotto Soudal) bagged an impressive victory and took two seconds out of a reduced field in the final sprint after the peloton had split in two following a spate of crashes.

Realising the danger Team Sky had moved to the front of the peloton ahead of a difficult run-in, with Kanstantsin Siutsou and Kennaugh leading Froome over the final categorised climb of the short, 118.3-kilometre test.

That awareness kept Froome safe and also enabled both Kennaugh and Siutsou to take trips to the podium to pull on the intermediate sprints and mountains jerseys respectively. Mikel Nieve also joined Siutsou in the lead group at the line.

After the stage  Sports Director Dario Cioni confirmed that both Nicolas Roche and Xabier Zandio were okay after being caught up with the crashes.

“We had Nico who went down in the first crash and Xabi was caught behind the second one but they are all okay,” he told TeamSky.com.

“The crashes actually came on a fairly straightforward bit of road but the wind was coming from the side which always makes the peloton nervous. The second one was caused right at the front so that’s why so many people went down.

“We knew the wind was going to be a factor on the last stretch of road so the safest place to be was at the front. The guys did a good job and because of that we’ve got Pete and Kosta both in classification jerseys.

“Everyone is feeling good and ready to go this evening.”

The first day of racing features a split format with stage 1b taking place on Wednesday afternoon in the form of an 8.2km time trial.