Dennis defends yellow jersey on 2nd stage of Tour de France

But in private he was fuming, particularly with Renshaw, who has delivered him to so many of his 25 Tour de France stage victories.

Cavendish was overhauled by Greipel, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Fabian Cancellara (Trek) in the finishing straight across the Pijlerdam. We died. It’s disappointing, Tony’s [Martin] disappointed. “It wasn’t like I had a bad sprint, you can see I’ve gone [accelerated] from too long”.

“I have just watched it back on the video and the guys behind played it flawless”. “I’m very thankful to my teammates for keeping me in front all day”. The 25-year-old will now start the second stage from Utrecht to Neeltje Jans in the yellow leaders jersey, reports Xinhua.

“Cavendish stopped sprinting and this costs Tony the jersey”, Lefevere said. “That was hard but I’m happy to have it out of the way”. “Probably this was our last chance to take the yellow jersey”, Lefevere said.

Posting a picture of the finale on his Twitter feed, the Manxman wrote: “Look at this photo”.

Cavendish only added fuel to the fire with an ill-tempered response to his critics on social media, tweeting later: “Some imbeciles think cycling is a computer game”.

Giro d’Italia victor Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) was a further eight seconds adrift of Nibali, who has an 18 seconds advantage over Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

Froome now sits 10th, 48 seconds off the overall lead, with Contador 12 seconds behind him.

Nibali, Quintana and Frenchman Thibaut Pinot all rolled in 1 minute, 28 seconds behind.

Froome was excellently shepherded by two other Britons, Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas, as the day’s break was swept up with 62.5km to go. I’m glad it happened the way it happened and I had all the support from my team-mates when it mattered.

“We’re two days down now and I couldn’t have hoped for much more at this stage”.

And there was certainly a storm on Sunday as the sweltering 91 degree heat of Saturday’s time trial around Utrecht was replaced by howling wind and rain. “I was behind (a crash) and I didn’t quite understand what was happening”, said Nibali, one of only six riders to win all three Grand Tours. I couldn’t actually believe it when I heard that he was distanced. “I want to hold it for at least one more day”, said Dennis, who took silver in the team pursuit at the 2012 Olympics.

“This is a three-week race and things do change on a daily basis. We’re ahead today but there’s lots in store for us for the rest of the week”.

While Dennis became the first Australian to win the opening stage of the Tour since Bradley McGee in 2003, the main contenders to be wearing the yellow jersey when it ends in Paris on July 26 avoided any mishaps on the high-speed curves.

Monday’s third stage takes the peloton 157-km from Antwerp in Belgium to the brutal uphill finish at the Mur de Huy, where a few seconds could be gained.