Floris Gerts of the BMC Racing Team finished 11th as Elia Viviani (Team Sky) won the bunch sprint that capped Sunday's opening stage of the Aviva Tour of Britain.

Gerts joined the BMC Racing Team as a stagiaire last month. He won four races for the BMC Development Team this year before helping Jempy Drucker win the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic and Silvan Dillier and Ben Hermans win stages at the Arctic Race of Norway.

"It was harder than expected in a way in that the roads were really narrow and up and down," Gerts said . "We did not have a favored sprinter so it was up to the other teams to ride and we stayed in the peloton."

Rick Zabel withdrew before the halfway point of the 177.7-kilometer race. BMC Racing Team Dr. Scott Major said the Tour of Austria stage winner became sick during the race.