Froome, Contador exploit hazardous weather in Tour de France

Rohan Dennis vowed to keep hold of the yellow jersey for as long as possible after winning the Tour de France’s opening stage. “I had to find the energy to do the sprint, I had no energy left from yesterday”.

Three crashes in two days – resulting in a fractured hand and a broken wrist – accounted for Froome 12 months ago prior to the cobbles on the fifth stage.

Nibali, Quintana and Frenchman Thibaut Pinot all rolled in 1 minute, 28 seconds behind Greipel. That deficit could hurt them when the race hits the mountains later on.

“This is a huge advantage for us now, sitting in this position after one flat day out on the road”, he added. “We are ahead today, but who knows what’s in store in store for us for the rest of the week”.

“Everyone said to me it must be a dream come true and it really is”. “It turned from attractive weather to a situation we didnt expect to be in.”.

It means the Mur de Huy will be Dennis’s first challenge to keep the yellow jersey, although the specialist punchers that might worry him, such as Alejandro Valverde, Michal Kwiatkowski and Dan Martin, are all around a minute or more behind in the standings.

“It was only a good few kilometres after the split happened that we actually found out that it was a smaller group and so numerous GC [general classification] guys had been distanced already”, Froome admitted.

Froome, the 2013 champion who crashed out previous year, sounded surprised to have built such a lead on Nibali but was not getting carried away.

“I’m very thankful to my team-mates for keeping me in front all day and especially when it mattered, when the split took place”.

“I was in front, I managed to stay upright but what more could I do”.

The stage finish in the heart of the Zeeland Delta offered a wild and spectacular backdrop.

Riders rode over a pier with waves crashing beneath them, and then snaked through treacherously narrow streets packed with crowds.

The Tour swings into nearby Belgium on Monday for Stage 3.

Attention will now turn to the sprinters for Sunday’s stage where the absence of Marcel Kittel, victor of eight sprint stages over the last two years, leaves the field wide open. That was enough to earn him a four-second bonus and the yellow jersey.

Greipel edged Tinkoff-Saxo’s Peter Sagan of Slovakia on the line in Zelande, Netherlands, after great work inside of the peloton from Tony Gallopin and Marcel Sieberg during the 104-mile stage.

“I am not happy at all”.

The BMC Racing Team rider outclassed some of the pre-stage favourites to claim the yellow jersey, clocking an astonishing 55.446 kph average speed – a new Tour record. He abandoned after several crashes before he’d even reached the much-feared cobbles on the French-Belgian border in Stage 5.

Most of you would say of course not, but sometimes it’s just nice to ease into something. “I feel bad for Rohan and wish he was in that move with us”.

Cancellara said that an encouraging text message from sports director Josu Larrazabal he received on Saturday lifted his morale.