Pedersen takes opening stage
Denmark's Martin Pedersen (CSC) won the opening stage of the Tour of Britain in Castle Douglas yesterday. Pedersen out-sprinted his breakaway companions Luis Passamontes (Unibet.com) and Mathew Goss (South Australia.com-AIS) after four hours of racing over the Scottish countryside.
The breakaways were still together on the top of the climb at Shiel Hill and battled together to hold onto the lead that had been over 10 minutes on the road at around half distance. When they rounded the final corner it was Pedersen that had the strength to win the gallop on the uphill drag in front of hundreds of spectators lining the last 300 metres.
Pedersen's 10 second time bonus gained from the stage win saw him take the leaders yellow jersey with a margin of just two seconds over Goss, who had won all three hot spot sprints on the day.
Quick Step took fourth and fifth places via the bunch sprint with Francesco, Chicchi beating Filippo Pozzato. Russell Downing (DFL Cyclingnews-Litespeed) came home in sixth place to keep alive British hopes for a stage win later in the week.
"I was pleased to get into the break really early," said Pederson. "All three of us worked really hard. When we built the lead up to 10 minutes 40 seconds we realised we had a chance of winning the stage. We were getting time checks from the manager and we knew the gap was coming down but I was feeling really good and I was determined to try to take the stage win. It's a great performance for me and the team. I am delighted to take the yellow jersey and we will be very keen to keep it for the rest of the week."
