The hotly tipped favourite for the green jersey, Peter Sagan (Cannondale), got off to a bad start in his quest for green yesterday as he went down hard in the crash in Bastia during stage 1 of the Tour de France, but he emerged from the team bus after the stage with a smile, waving to the fans that had waited to ascertain that their hero was not seriously injured.

"My back is all grazed and I've got quite a few other cuts and bruises but I'm ok. We'll see how I feel in the next few days, but the Hulk recovers quickly, I'll be ok," the Slovak champion told Gazzetta dello Sport, making a reference to the comic book superhero.

While Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) enjoyed his moment of glory after winning the sprint, Sagan finished 155th. Kittel scored 45 points but Sagan missed out entirely. Fortunately so did all Sagan’s other main rivals for the green jersey competition.

"The opening stage didn't develop according to plan, but we knew something like that might happen," Sagan said. "I didn't know it happened. Someone ahead of me crashed. I braked but they hit me from behind. That's all I know. We were three kilometres from the finish, it was chaotic. Fortunately we were given the same time as the other riders. Several other big-name sprinters didn't contest the sprint either and so didn't score points for the green jersey. The Tour's started badly but luckily nothing is lost."