Saturday 04 May 2013 at 17h44

The first stage of the Tour of Italy 2013 on a circuit around Naples ended in a sprint today, as expected. The British Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) won this first stage and will thus wear the first maglia rosa (pink jersey) of the Giro d'Italia 2013 tomorrow.

The summary of the first stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013 - Naples > Naples

This afternoon the first stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013 took place around Naples, on a double circuit: a first circuit of 16.4 kilometers which was to be done 4 times and with a short climb (counting twice as a 4th category climb for the King of the Mountains classification) and a second circuit, shorter, of a bit over 8 kilometers, to be done 8 times.

After 4 kilometers the first attack of this 96th Tour of Italy allowed to create the first breakaway of this Italian Grand Tour, with Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R La Mondiale), Cameron Wurf (Cannondale Pro Cycling), Ricardo Mestre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Brian Bulgac (Lotto-Belisol), Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team) and Martijn Keizer (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team), rapidly joined by Marco Canola (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox) and these riders saw their gap grow to 2 minutes.

About fourty kilometers further, Cameron Wurf attacked from this group and after 53 kilometers in the race, his 6 former companions were all taken back by the peloton when Wurf's gap was up to 1'56".

At about thirty kilometers from the finish, his gap is however already down to 51 seconds and it continues to drop rather quickly. He wins the intermediate sprint but at 15 kilometers from the finish the bunch is again back together.

Everything was thus ready for the expected bunch sprint at the finish of this first stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013. After a crash in the final kilometers, the favourite sprinters finally go off so fast in this sprint that they arrive in a group of only 7 riders, 3 seconds later followed by 2 other sprinters (Adam Blythe and Leigh Howard), at 12 seconds by Brett Lancaster and at 18 seconds by the rest of the peloton. In this small group of 7 riders who sprint for victory the big favourite, Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) wins he stage, in 2h58'38" with an average speed of 43.664 km/h.

The classification of the first stage of the Tour of Italy 2013

The classification of the first stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013 - Naples > Naples

Here's the top 10 of this first stage. Since the crash happened in the last 3 kilometers, all riders in the peloton at the time of the crash has been credited with the same time

1/ Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 2h58'38"
2/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale Pro Cycling)
3/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ)
4/ Giacomo Nizzolo (Radioshack-Leopard)
5/ Matthew Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE)
6/ Francisco Ventoso (Movistar Team)
7/ Adam Blythe (BMC Racing Team)
8/ Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEDGE)
9/ Danilo Hondo (Radioshack-Leopard)
10/ Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE)

General classification after the first stage

Thanks to the bonus seconds, Mark Cavendish is now wearing the pink jersey with a 8 seconds gap on Elia Viviani. Since Danilo Hondo (Radioshack-Leopard) took the second place in the intermediate sprint, behind Cameron Wurf, the German rider currently has the 4th place in the general classification:

1/ Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 2h58'18"
2/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale Pro Cycling) - +0'08"
3/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) - +0'12"
4/ Danilo Hondo (Radioshack-Leopard) - +0'16"
5/ Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - +0'18"

Points classification

Mark Cavendish also occupies the first place in the points classification:

1/ Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 28 points
2/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale Pro Cycling) - 20 points
3/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) - 16 points
4/ Giacomo Nizzolo (Radioshack-Leopard) - 14 points
5/ Danilo Hondo (Radioshack-Leopard) - 13 points

Best young riders classification

Elia Viviani (Cannondale Pro Cycling) is logically the first leader of the best young riders classification:

1/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale Pro Cycling) - 2h58'26"
2/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) - +0'04"
3/ Giacomo Nizzolo (Radioshack-Leopard) - +0'12"
4/ Adam Blythe (BMC Racing Team)
5/ Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEDGE)

The King of the Mountains classification has not been published here since it's not yet really representative.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2013

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