Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) won the first clash of the sprinting titans in the Tour of Britain when he won the opening circuit race in Liverpool. Benefiting from a perfect lead-out, he held off a fast-finishing Nicola Ruffoni (Bardiani) and crowd favourite Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) to take both the stage victory and the leader’s jersey.

Going into the Tour of Britain, much talk had been focused on the expected battles between Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish. Today the pair went head to head for the first time after a fast circuit race in Liverpool on the opening day of the race.

Here Kittel dealt his rival a psychological blow when he took his first victory since the Tour de France. Again his Giant-Shimano team did everything perfectly to deliver their captain on the front but it was no easy win for the fast German.

However, it wasn’t Cavendish who was Kittel’s big threat as the Manxman could only manage third. Instead, it was Italian sprinting sensation Nicola Ruffoni who nearly beat the race favourite but had to settle for second.

The opening stage was held on a completely flat, non-technical circuit in Liverpool and at just 104.8km, it was a gentle introduction to the 8-day race. The riders took off under unusually sunny conditions and all was set for a big sprint finish.

Nonetheless, a lot of local riders wanted to go on the attack but it was the first move that was the right one. Yanto Barker (Raleigh) and Jon Mould (NFTO) got clear and while Barker was unable to keep up with his companion, Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani), Richard Handley (Raleigh) and Mark McNally (An Post) joined Mould to form the early break.

After 10km of racing, they were 41 seconds ahead and they managed to extend their advantage to 1.10 at the end of the first lap. While Cavendish fought his way back from a mechanical, Giant-Shimano, OPQS and MTN-Qhubeka took control and they kept the gap stable at around 1.30 for almost the entire stage.

Colbrelli beat Mould and Handley in the first sprint at the end of the second lap while McNally beat Handley and Colbrelli in the first KOM sprint. The atmosphere in the peloton was very relaxed while Giant-Shimano and MTN-Qhubeka led the chase as OPQS had no taken a breather.

Colbrelli beat Mould and Handley in the second intermediate sprint while McNally beat Handley and Mould in the second KOM sprint. At the end of the 5th lap, Giant-Shimano had kept the gap at 1.44 but now they got some assistance from MTN and Sky, with David Lopez taking some huge turns on the front.

Colbrelli won the final intermediate sprint while McNally again scored maximum points in the final KOM sprint. With 12km to go, the gap had been brought down to 30 seconds and the chase was now full on as Julien Vermote had hit the front for OPQS.

While Handley was dropped from the breakaway, Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) launched an attack from the peloton but the Italian was quickly brought back. With 6km to, Stephen Cummings (BMC) tried a move and he got a bigger gap.

With 5.3km to go, the gap was still 20 seconds while Pablo Lastras (Movistar) tried to join the BMC rider. The pair were brought back but the peloton had a hard time catching the leaders.

NetApp-Endura had now hit the front but the difference was made when Bradley Wiggins (Sky) took over. The Brit brought the break back with 3.4km to go and then NetApp again strung out the group.

A Garmin rider took a huge turn but under the red kite, it was again NetApp in control. That’s when Giant-Shimano moved up and even though they had briefly lost Kittel, they found back together and delivered their German perfectly.

Adam Blythe (NFTO) tried to launch a long sprint but was blown away by Kittel. In the end, however, Ruffoni came fast and nearly passed the race favourite.

With the win, Kittel takes the first leader’s jersey and he goes into stage 2 with a 1-second advantage over Colbrelli. He faces a tough challenge in stage 2 which has a flat first half but includes three category 2 climbs in the finale, with the final one summiting just 5km from the line.