If there's a bunch sprint, you can be sure that Giant-Shimano are up there and that was of course the case when the first stage of the Tour de Picardie ended as one for the fast finishers. Ramon Sinkeldam was set to do the sprint and he came back from a late crash to take an excellent third behind French sprint stars Bryan Coquard and Arnaud Demare.

Ramon Sinkeldam has sprinted to third place on the opening stage of the Tour de Picardie. The 191km stage from Fort-Mahon to Estrées-Saint-Denis came down to a bunch sprint as expected and it was another strong finish from Sinkeldam finishing just behind two pure sprinters.

The finish was tainted slightly by a fall for Brian Bulgac with five kilometres to go. Bulgac will be assessed before the medical staff decide whether or not he will start tomorrow.

The day’s break was formed of just four riders however despite their hard efforts their advantage never grew to much more than a handful of minutes. They were rewarded with being able to fight out the king of the mountains competition for the day but their chances of staying ahead to the finish were dashed on the run in to Estrées-Saint-Denis.

Crosswinds and pressure from the Team Giant-Shimano helped to split the peloton with 20km to go and with all but two riders in the front group the team was in a good position. They were out to set up Sinkeldam for a fast finish however a large crash put a spanner in the works. Bulgac came off worst with an injured wrist (further info to follow) and Sinkeldam was also caught up, but he managed to stay upright and only suffered a dropped chain.

“With eight kilometres to go there was a large crash near the front of the bunch and Brian and myself were involved. Brian was able to finish but he had hurt his wrist so I hope that he is OK. I came out fine, just with a dropped chain which set me back, but luckily I had Tom [Dumoulin] with me and he brought me right back up to the front group which was amazing.

“I was back up there but still a bit on the back foot and had to try and make some moves to get through at the finish. It wasn’t the perfect preparation for the finish and against sprinters like Coquard and Démare I need a perfect finish to be able to take the win.

“The following two stages are pretty similar, being quite flat but then with slightly uphill finishes. We will see as a team what we are going to do here but I think that I have the legs for some more strong sprints here.”

Team Giant-Shimano coach added:

“The guys rode a strong team performance today and Ramon was strong at the end as he still came third despite it not going quite go to plan.

“With 20km to go the team made a strong move in the crosswinds which split the peloton up into five echelons. We have most of the team in the front split and were looking in control. Tom did a great job in bringing Ramon back up after the crash and then Jonas took Ramon through to the front. Unfortunately Ramon was boxed out of Jonas’s wheel and had to move up himself. The first two were faster today but it is good to see him challenging up there at the finish again.”