Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) got his Giro d'Italia off to a perfect start with a win in the first stage of the Italian grand tour in Naples. He beat Elia Viviani (Cannondale) and Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) in a dramatic sprint that was marred by a huge crash and a mechanical for his lead-out man Gert Steegmans and takes the first maglia rosa in the process.

Before the start of the Giro d'Italia Mark Cavendish declared his intentions to take the first maglia rosa of the race as the opening 130km stage in the streets of Naples suited the Brit perfectly. Today he fulfilled his wish as he took an impressive stage win and in the process secured his third stint in the leader's jersey after his previous leads in the 2009 and 2011 editions.

The win came at the end of a hugely dramatic sprint as a huge crash inside the final 3km of the race took most of the riders out of contention. Only 10-15 riders were left in front of the tumble and had to battle it out for the stage win.

Paolo Longo Borghini and Tiziano Dall'Antonia had hit the front with their Cannondale sprinter Elia Viviani in their wheels and sped off while most of the peloton was left behind. The Orica-GreenEdge train of Brett Lancaster, Leigh Howard and Matt Goss were placed just behind Viviani while Cavendish was in a perfect position in the wheel of his lead-out man Gert Steegmans.

Just as they passed the flamme rouge Lancaster, Howard and Goss started their sprint and overtook the Cannondale riders but Viviani managed to get into the perfect position just behind Goss. Meanwhile, Steegmans had a mechanical and as the Belgian came to a standstill, Cavendish had to make a short sprint to get back into position.

Danilo Hondo and Giacomo Nizzolo from Radioshack moved up and overtook Cavendish who moved a little further back. Due to his bad position he had to open his sprint from a long way out while Goss and Viviani both opened up the throttle at the front. In a very tight finish the Manxman managed to sneak ahead of Viviani to take the win while French champion Nacer Bouhanni finished ahead of Nizzolo and a fading Goss to take third.

With the win and bonus seconds Cavendish now leads the race with a 4 second gap to 2nd placed Viviani. He will try to defend his jersey in tomorrow's team time trial and on paper his team has a good chance as they are the reigning world champions in the discipline. However, most of their best time triallists are not in Italy and it will be a huge task to hold off the likes of Sky and Orica-GreenEdge in tomorrow's collective effort.

Starting at 15.30 you can follow the team time trial in its entirety on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

7 riders in the Giro's first break

For the first time since 2003 the Giro did not kick off with a prologue or a team time trial as the opening day would be one for the sprinters. The 130km route in the city of Naples consisted of 4 laps on a large 16,3km circuit containing a small climb and 8 laps of a shorter, completely flat 8,1km circuit along the seafront in the Italian city.

Clad in pink defending champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) led the peloton safely through the neutral zone but as soon as the flag dropped to signal the official start the racing kicked off in earnest. Alan Marangoni (Cannondale) attacked and he was joined by a number of riders in the day's first move.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step knew that they had to stay careful from the beginning to make sure that the early break was not too big and so they closed down the attack. Instead, Brian Bulgac (Lotto-Belisol) put in an acceleration and together with Ricardo Mestre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Cameron Wurf (Cannondale), Guillaume Bonnafond (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Martijn Keizer (Vacansoleil) he opened up a gap.

From behind Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) and Marco Canola (Bardiani) joined the move and the 7 riders got an advantage of more than a minute before the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team started to chase. For most of the day Julien Vermote and Jerome Pineau were at the front of the peloton and they were quickly joined by the Argos-Shimano duo of Thomas Damuseau and Cheng Ji whose effort showed the intentions of John Degenkolb.

The break battles for mountain points

On the second and third passages of the climb the riders had to battle it out for mountain points and when Wurf and Visconti got a small gap on the descent after the first passage of the ascent they tried to persist in an attempt to take the points. They were, however, brought back and instead it was Bonnafond who attacked on the lower slopes of the climb.

For a long time he seemed to be in a position to win the sprint but just before the line he was overtaken by Visconti and Canola. On the next passage of the climb it was Wurf who tried to copy the strategy of Bonnafond and he soloed off.

Unlike the Frenchman he kept up the pace all the way to the top and took maximum points in the sprint. Behind Bonnafond had attacked to take second while Keizer was also on the move and secured third. This meant that Wurf and Visconti were equal on points and the first mountains jersey would be taken by the best placed in the GC at the end of the stage.

Wurf alone in the lead

With no more mountain points up for grabs most breakaway riders had no interest in their attack and while Wurf continued  his effort at the head the remaining riders regrouped and with 72km to go the disinterested chase group was caught.

Wurf was now the lone leader and for a long time his gap hovered between 1.30 and 2.00 while Vermote, Pineau, Ji and Damuseau continued to chase behind. Meanwhile, the teams of the GC riders started to move into position and Sky, Euskaltel and Blanco were all very visible in the front end of the peloton.

Many crashes

As the battle for position increased, the riders got more nervous and many riders hit the deck during the day. Laurent Pichon (FDJ), Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Yaroslav Popovych (Radioshack) seemed to be worst off but all managed to finish the race.

Wurf just managed to keep the peloton at bay until the intermediate sprint with 24,3km to go and with bonus seconds on the line he was now ahead of Visconti in the GC and thus appeared to be the first leader of the mountains classification. With 19km to go it was, however, all over for the Australian as the Omega Pharma-Quick Step led peloton swallowed up the lone Cannondale rider and he was later dropped by the peloton and so Visconti ended up in the blue mountains jersey after all.

A hectic final part

Sky and Lampre made trains alongside the Omega Pharma-Quick Step riders and for many kilometers it was a three-headed peloton with all three teams lined up at the front. Behind both the GC and sprint teams battled for position.

With 6km to go Orica-GreenEdge hit the front with Svein Tuft setting a hard pace. Pieter Weening was the next man in line and all the time their sprinter Goss appeared to be in the perfect position.

With 3,3km to Cannondale took over and in the hectic battle behind the green-clad riders a major crash happened. That severely disrupted the sprint from which Cavendish emerged victorious and took the first maglia rosa of this year's Giro d'Italia.

Result:

1. Mark Cavendish 2.58.38

2. Elia Viviani

3. Nacer Bouhanni

4. Giacomo Nizzolo

5. Matthew Goss

6. Francisco Ventoso

7. Adam Blythe

8. Leigh Howard

9. Danilo Hondo

10. Brett Lancaster

General classification:

1. Mark Cavendish 2.58.18

2. Elia Viviani +0.08

3. Nacer Bouhanni +0.12

4. Danilo Hondo +0.16

5. Marco Marcato +0.18

6. Giacomo Nizzolo +0.20

7. Matthew Goss

8. Francisco Ventoso

9. Adam Blythe

10. Leigh Howard

Points classification:

1. Mark Cavendish 28

2. Elia Viviani 20

3. Nacer Bouhanni 16

4. Giacomo Nizzolo 14

5. Matthew Goss 13

Mountains classification:

1. Giovanni Visconti 3

2. Cameron Wurf 3

3. Guillaume Bonnafond 3

4. Marco Canola 2

5. Martijn Keizer 1

Young rider classification:

1. Elia Viviani

2. Nacer Bouhanni +0.04

3. Giacomo Nizzolo +0.12

4. Adam Blythe

5. Leigh Howard

Team's classification:

1. Orica-GreenEdge 8.55.54

2. BMC

3. Garmin-Sharp

4. Radioshack-Leopard

5. FDJ