"I have a lot of seconds for nothing this year. This win is a first for something."

Those were the words of Astana's Andrea Guardini after winning stage one at the World Ports Classic. Guardini won a mass sprint at the end of the flat and windy stage along the brutal Zeeland Coast of the Netherlands.

Teammate Ruslan Tleubayev escaped into a late breakaway after rival teams created an elite echelon of 30 riders in a heavy crosswind. Tleubayev and one other rider managed a one-minute gap until 3km to the finish.

Teammates Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev, Maxat Ayazbayev and Laurens De Vreese protected Guardini during the heavy crosswinds along the Dutch sea, where stage two of the 2015 Tour de France will be raced in July. Guardini stayed with his teammates into the final grand turn of the stage and waited to sprint with clear, open space in front of him to take victory and the lead in the General Classification.

"I'm very happy with it. This is a good race that I would like to have on my palmare," he said. "I beat Kris [Boeckmans] here in his own region. Last week he was faster than me in the final stage of the Tour de Picardie and he also grabbed the overall victory. Now I'm at the top. That feels good. 

"My team did a good job in the finale. They took me to the wheel of Kittel in the last kilometer, but he was not placed very well. The lead-out man of Lotto Soudal was still far ahead. I still had a lot of people in front of me. Fortunately, it turned out well and I still had enough strength in my legs for the final sprint. This is a beautiful victory and after my stage victory in Picardie it is a further confirmation that my condition is fine.

"I'm going to try to defend that jersey but it will not be easy."