Marcel Kittel won the opening sprint battle and took the first leader's jersey in the Tour of Britain. However, the German feared that he had been taken out of contention until a crash opened a gap for him to pass through.

Marcel Kittel has sprinted to an emphatic opening stage victory at the Tour of Britain making a successful return to racing in England after his two stage victories there at the Tour de France this summer.

With the stage win Kittel also takes the first leaders jersey of the race into tomorrow’s second stage from Knowsley to Llandudno.

The opening stage was based on a near-flat circuit around the northern city of Liverpool and a bunch sprint was always expected but this didn’t stop the expected early attacks from coming. Four riders formed the day’s breakaway to fight out the intermediate sprints and king of the mountains points on offer.

Team Giant-Shimano set out their objectives from early in the stage as Brian Bulgac started to help control the pace at the head of the peloton. Tom Stamsnijder joined the chase midway through the relatively short 104.8km stage and this helped to keep a check on their advantage.

With 10km to go the break had just over 30″ advantage, and with 3.5km to go it was all back together as the sprint formations started to hit the front. The team bided their time and waited until the right moment to come through on the right hand side by the barriers with Tom Veelers launching Kittel for his finishing sprint. Kittel held on to take an impressive win and with it he takes the first yellow jersey of the race.

The stage also saw a welcome return to racing for Bert De Backer after a few months out after his heavy fall at Ster ZLM Tour. De Backer rode a strong race playing a key role in the chasing and also in setting up the sprint at the finish.

Kittel gave his reaction straight after the stage, saying: “It was really messy at the finish – it’s always difficult when you have a downhill section in the final kilometre as it becomes really fast and harder to hold position.

“The team were strong today, controlling the race then we had to come really late for the lead-out. We found a way through on the right and this worked well.

“It was pretty hectic and messy with the crash at one kilometre before the finish.

“We decided during the race to try and stay on the right side of the road. After the last right corner I thought it was a wrong decision because we were pretty far to the left and it was hard to get riders up through the right.

“Riders try to move up on the left and the right side and the road went to the left a bit and a lot of riders stayed on the right and that was when they crashed.

“Luckily after that crash we could move up and go to the front. Tom Veelers chose a really good moment to go right to the front. He timed it well to protect me from the wind so I could save myself for the sprint.

“It’s good to win the first stage. It’s really nice to see the reaction of the spectators here – a lot of people came out to the race today.

“It’s a long way until London but it is nice to be the leader here and we will see what we can do tomorrow on stage two. I hope that as a team we will have more opportunities to challenge for stage victories here.”

“It was a hard stage to control with just six riders here, and also we were the only team that wanted to control it,” said Team Giant-Shimano coach Marc Reef after the stage. ”We kept it at 1’30″ to 1’45″ with Brian [Bulgac] and Tom [Stamsnijder] and then later other teams came to help later on.

“In the lead-out it was quite hectic and we got lucky with an opening on the right hand side. The guys stayed calm and went when it  opened up and Tom [Veelers] was able to do a perfect lead-out.

“For tomorrow it looks like it could be quite tough but we will study the stage and see what we can do and if Marcel can hold on over the hills.”