Giant Shimano's Marcel Kittel has won the opening stage of the Tour Of Britain.
The opening stage was an eight laps of 13.1kms around Liverpool and there was a very strong field including Mark Cavendish, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Alex Dowsett and Nicholas Roche, amid the World Tour and Pro Continental, Continental and British riders.
Mark McNally, Jan Mould and Yanto Barker were in a five man group that was on the attack early on a lovely sunny September day on Merseyside.
They were joined by four more riders but was soon back down to four in Richard Hanley (Rapha Condor), Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani) Jon Mould (NFTO) and Mark McNally (An Post) on the front.
With 91.5kms left, their lead had gone out to 1.15 as they weaved their way through massive crowds on the streets of Liverpool.
Cavendish was forced off his bike to adjust his shoe plate and had to be paced by his Omega Pharma Quick Step team car back to the peloton.
Colbrelli took the first sprint of the race ahead of Mould with a lead of 1.22 over the main field which had Mark Cavendish back in it.
Liverpool residing Mark McNally took the King Of The Mountain points after getting round Handley with 75kms to go.
The four in the break worked well together and were 1.31 ahead when Mould led the intermediate sprint out only to be beaten by Colbrelli.
McNally took the second King Of The Mountains climb to give him the jersey to take into the second stage from Knowsley to Llandudno with Handley second and Mould third.
The gap went out to 1.47 on the fifth lap which saw Colbrelli storm down the left to take the sprint points ahead of Mould which was shortly followed by the 25 year old McNally taking the four KOM points with under 23kms left.
MTN Qhubeka and Team Sky started to bring the escapers slowly back and the four out front were only 36 seconds ahead as they started on the final lap.
Handley was shelled as Manuelle Boaro of Tinkoff Saxo attacked from the peloton who were only 26 seconds behind with less than ten kilometres left.
BMC's Steve Cummings from the Wirral charged after the three escapers who were still 23 seconds ahead with six kilometres left. Cummings was caught by a Movistar rider and then the peloton.
These attacks had meant that the gap was down to nine seconds with 4.3kms left and despite the best efforts of Sonny Colbrelli, they were were caught with 3.4kms to go by Sir Bradley Wiggins who was driving the peloton.
Garmin Sharp, working for Tyler Farrer moved up as did Irish sprinter Shane Mullin.
Team Net App and Team Sky were leading going under the flam rouge. Giant Shimano got a rider up to the front. There was a crash but Adam Blythe went with Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish and it was Kittel won in 2.16.35 with Rufoni of Bardiani second and Mark Cavendish third, Farrar was fourth and Ben Swift was fifth.
"It was a messy sprint," said Kittel, who leads the GC ahead of Colbrelli by a second due to the time bonuses. " You cannot hold your positiion and I tried but there was a crash on the left, so I went on the right and took the win.
"It is good to win in the Tour Of Britain and it was nice to see the reaction of the spectators, they know the race from the Tour De France and I want to say thank you to them for making me welcome.
"Hopefuly, there will be more stages for me to win."
Mark McNally from nearby Crosby said: "This was a nice jersey for the team and good for all the local support. We are a small team but are strong in the breakways. All my family and friends are here and it was good to get a jersey for them.
"Wednesday will be a difficult stage but we will wait and see."