Chris Froome, Alberto Contador take control in Tour de France

Mark Cavendish was denied his 26th Tour de France stage win when he was pipped to the line by Andre Greipel on a wet and wild second stage in the Netherlands.

Greipel edged out Peter Sagan with Fabian Cancellara claiming third place narrowly ahead of Cavendish.

The 34-year-old Cancellara, who first wore the Tour yellow jersey in 2004, is riding in his last Tour.

Cancellara had been bitterly disappointed not to take yellow after Saturday’s stage. “But I can’t pull up on the handlebars so I can’t sprint”, he said.

Cycling along the Dutch coastline promises to be tricky for riders, with heavy gusts and sprays.

An out-and-out climber, the 2013 runner-up was fourth of the quartet of riders most experts believe have the race between them, but just 18 seconds behind last year’s victor, Vincenzo Nibali.

Nibali, Quintana and Frenchman Pinot all rolled in one minute, 28 seconds behind. This is a huge advantage for us now; to sit in this position after one flat day.

Froome lost a touch more time to some of the more unheralded GC outsiders such as Wilco Keldermann, Tejay Van Garderen and Bauke Mollema but the differences will likely be inconsequential when the race comes to a conclusion in three weeks in Paris. “We’re ahead today but there’s lots in store for us for the rest of the week”.

As visibility worsened, the wind became stronger and the rain lashed down, crashes were going to be inevitable.

“It was chaos out there for a few minutes with the storm and the winds”. “It turned from lovely weather to a situation we didnt expect to be in.”.

Chris Froome was content after an opening stage of the Tour de France where an Australian overhauled an Englishman’s record at the start of an Ashes summer. It was an important race for me because I didn’t get a chance to ride the classics this year (through injury).

Later, Australian rider Adam Hansen fell, got back on his bike clutching his right shoulder and with his legs caked in dirt.

Both 2014 Giro d’Italia victor Quintana and the man he succeeded in that event, Nibali, were caught out in the final 50km by a succession of crashes as the speed in the peloton increased and crosswinds coupled with driving rain caused splits in the bunch.

After failing in his bid to win the Tour’s opening stage for a record sixth time on the streets of Utrecht, Cancellara sprinted to a third-place finish at the end of Sunday’s rain-soaked second stage of the Tour.

“I’m really thankful to my team-mates for keeping me in front, especially when that split happened”, the BBC reported Froome as saying. “If I can hold it for (another) one, two, three (days) or until the team timetrial (on stage nine) that would be great”.

However, the Italian suffered another setback when he punctured 25 kilometres from the line, and finally the gap of 88 seconds on Froome and Contador may not have seemed such a bad loss.

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