Bradley Wiggins (Sky) was regarded as one of the big favourites for this year's Eneco Tour but the Brit fell out of contention already on the first stage. According to sports director Servain Knaven, the time loss was not intended and now Wiggins has set his sights on the stage 5 time trial.

Having shown solid form by crushing the opposition in the Tour de Pologne time trial, Bradley Wiggins was by many seen as one of the favourites for this year's Eneco Tour. However, all overall hopes were dashed already on today's first flat stage when he fell off the pace in the final part of the stage, ultimately losing 3.50 to stage winner Mark Renshaw (Belkin).

Having mainly started the race to prepare for his big target at the world time trial championships, Wiggins has now set his sights on the stage 5 time trial. According to sports director Servais Knaven, it was not part of the pre-race plan to lose time today but the former Tour winner doesn't want to take too many risks in the tricky finales.

“You can see Brad is really focused on the time trial on Friday," Knaven said. "He was a bit far back - it’s not that he’s not riding well. It can be tricky sometimes when the pace shoots up. He wanted to move up but it is hard to do so at a time like that.”

Instead, the team focused on the sprint finish which had an unexpected outcome. Mark Renshaw anticipated the sprinters and took a beautiful solo win 2 seconds ahead of Andre Greipel who won the bunch sprint for 2nd.

With Renshaw up the road, Matthew Hayman had tried to bridge across.

“It was a really good move from Renshaw so respect for that," Knaven said. "Nobody reacted immediately. Mat wanted to jump on it but he was a little bit blocked initially. When he finally went clear it was too late. It was a good plan from Belkin certainly."

Chris Sutton was the team's best finisher in 19th while the squad's other sprinter Ben Swift finished in the Wiggins group.

“He has had a lot of pain in his shoulder so that was why he slipped back towards the end,” Knaven explained.

The race continues with the second stage tomorrow which should be another one for the sprinters but with an uphill finish, it is certainly not your typical bunch sprint. If Swift has recovered from his woes, it should be a good course for the British sprinter.

You can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.