After a number of near-misses in his first races of the season, John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) finally got things right when he won today's opening stage of the Tour Mediteraneen. On a windy day that saw the peloton break to pieces due to the crosswind, the German used his strong team to control affairs before holding off Danilo Napolitano (Wanty) and Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani) in the final sprint to take both his first win and the first leader's jersey of the race.

During the opening races of his season, GP La Marseillaise and last week's Etoile de Besseges, John Degenkolb had 6 race days and the strong German proved that he has done his winter training. In all 6 races, he finished in the top 10 but the elusive victory always seemed to escape him by the tiniest of margins.

Today things finally came together for Degenkolb when the Tour Mediteraneen opened with a long, flat 223.5km stage in Southern France. The German timed his sprint to perfection when the stage was decided in a bunch kick and held off Danilo Napolitano and Sonny Colbrelli to finally take to the top step of the podium.

The win came on a day that proved more dramatic than expected as strong winds wreaked havoc on the peloton in the final part. While most riders had probably settled their minds on an easy sprint stage, late attacks saw the peloton split into no less than 6 groups.

Some of them came back together but it was a diminished bunch that arrived at the finish for the sprint. In the final dash to the line, Degenkolb rewarded his teammates for the hard work they had done to control the stage almost singlehandedly right from the beginning.

With the win, Degenkolb is of course also the first leader of the 4-day, 5-stage race and he faces his first jersey defence tomorrow when he heads out on the 170.6km second stage. Two category 3 climbs precede the HC-categorized Col du Petit Galibier which will certainly rule out some of the fast finishers. From the top, 25.6km remain and so the stage is likely to come down to a sprint finish, with Degenkolb again being the man to beat.

A long stage

The Tour Mediteraneen opened with a long 223.5km stage from Argeles Sur Mer to Montagnac. Two category 3 climbs featured in the early part of the course but otherwise the route was mostly flat, with the wind posing the only potential danger.

Very few had a desire to get into the early break on this long stage and so the first attack ended up being the right one. Pierre Gouault (BigMat) took off right from the beginning and was quickly joined by Juan Pablo Valencia (Colombia), Fernando Grijalba (Caja Rural) and Vegard Stake Laengen (Bretagne) to form a front quartet.

Berard bridges across

Julien Berard (Ag2r) set off in pursuit and the Frenchman spent some time in between the break and the peloton before finally making contact with the leaders. The five escapees started to work well together and after 20km they were already 6.30 ahead.

Giant-Shimano had big plans for Degenkolb and so the Dutch team quickly started to set a steady pace in the peloton. Tom Peterson and Thierry Hupond did much of the early work, with the BMC and Trek team being well-placed just behind the riders from the Dutch team.

Grijalba becomes king of the mountains

Despite the work, the gap continued to grow and reached 8.55 after 45km of racing. Grijalba beat Valencia and Laengen on the first climb at a time when Giant-Shimano had started to slowly reduce the gap.

Grijalba was again faster than Valencia and Laengen at the top of the second climbing, meaning that the Spanish neo-pro is the first leader of the mountains classification. At this time, the gap was between 7 and 8 minutes where it was kept stable for most of the day.

Rosa abandons

A small crash brought down Yauheni Hutarovich and Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r) but both were able to continue without any problems. A little later Yoann Bagot (Cofidis) and Diego Rosa (Androni) hit the deck, with the latter unfortunately being forced to abandon.

Suddenly, the riders hit a windy section that caused a split in the peloton. However, no one had interest in keeping things going and so things came back together.

Crosswinds

Giant-Shimano again took on the chasing duties but the increased pace had brought the gap down to 5.55. The pursuit was now on in earnest, with the gap coming down to less than 4 minutes.

With a little less than 50km to go, the drama happened when the peloton hit another windy section. In a matter of seconds, the bunch had broken into 4 different groups and a little later the number had increased to 6.

The break is caught

The groups were now in fierce pursuit of each other and this spelled the end for the breakaway which was caught 31km from the finish. Europcar was the team driving the first group but they failed to hold off the second one which finally made the junction.

However, the pace was kept high in the run-in to the finish, with Europcar, IAM and BMC all taking the initiative in the first group. The group kept splitting, with 10 riders getting clear, at some point, but with 15km to go Giant-Shimano was back in control.

Mechanical for Degenkolb

Things slowed down a bit and this allowed Christophe Premont (Wallonie) to launch an attack. At the same time, Degenkolb had a mechanical, forcing Giant-Shimano to stop their chase.

BMC took over on the front but Premont was now 50 seconds ahead. With 5km to go, he still had a 22-second advantage but IAM was now chasing hard.

Premont dug deep but against the combined forces of BMC, IAM and Europcar he had no chance. With less than 1km to go, he was caught, setting the scene for the bunch sprint in which Degenkolb emerged as the strongest.