"I got up and got back on my bike to go to the finish. I saw some blood, but it was nothing terrible."

Those were the words of Astana's Jakob Fuglsang after stage one at the Tour de France. Fuglsang crashed on his left side after a sharp right turn near the finish of the short individual time trial in front of nearly half a million spectators in Utrecht.

The Danish rider required medical assistance from the team doctor after the stage for light abrasions on his left temple, shoulder and leg, but is fit and ready for stage two on Sunday. Fuglsang finished 1:26 behind stagewinner and raceleader Rohan Dennis of Australia.

Saturday's stage was a hot and sunny race against the clock to kick off the 2015 Tour de France, and marks the fifth visit by the race to the Netherlands.

Teammate Vincenzo Nibali finished 43 seconds behind Dennis, with an average speed of 52.9km/h. Lars Boom was one second behind Nibali.

Against the race favorites, Astana Pro Team leader and 2014 Tour de France champion Nibali is 9 seconds ahead of Chris Froome of the United Kingdom, 15 seconds ahead of Alberto Contador of Spain, and 18 seconds ahead of Nairo Quintana of Colombia with three weeks of racing to come.

“I didn’t know what to say at the finish but now that I’ve seen the times I can say that I’m happy with my performance,” Nibali told reporters. “The Tour is still long, we’ll keep our feet on the ground.

“Of the GC guys, the only one who did better than me was Thibaut Pinot, who put in a wonderful time trial, two seconds better than me and he gained on the others as well. We knew he was in good condition.

“In any case, it was important to do a good time to try and have a good position for the team car in the coming days and especially on the pavé.”

Stage two on Sunday is a flat and short 166km that continues across the south of the Netherlands from Utrecht to Zeeland.