Argos Shimano's Marcel Kittel won the opening stage of the 100th Tour De France.
The Salt Town of Porto Vecchio on the shores of the Tyrrenian Sea was chosen for the Grand Depart and staged a number of events including the Meet The Riders event on Thursday which attracted around 2,000 spectators.
On the stroke of noon and in glorious sunshine, the race set off from the seaside town up the N198 road in the direction of the finish in Bastia, opposite the Italian owned isle of Elba.
The roads were narrow two lane roads which were feared by many of the riders including British Champion Mark Cavendish and wound their way around the coast.
Seven and a half minutes into the stage and right by Porto Vecchio's football stadium, Chris Froome punctured but was soon on his way.
Second puncture of the stage came three kilometres after the official start and this time, it was World Champion Philippe Gilbert of BMC who needed a replacement tire as a five rider break got away.
Lars Boom of Belkin, Juan Antonio Flecha of Vacansoleil, Jerome Cousin of Europcar, Cyril Lemoine of Sojasu and Euskatel's Jose Lobato, were in that break which had an inital lead of two minutes.
The first sprint of the race came with 167.4kms to go and Lobato took that to get the first points in the Green Jersey competition which has been targeted by Mark Cavendish, who won the point jersey at the Giro D'Italia.
The peloton continued to let the five escapers get away and they took twelve minutes before cutting them back to just over three and a half minutes.
Jerome Cousin escaped the clutches of the front group and with 80kms to go, he was pulled back.
Omega Pharma Quick Step had done plenty of work on the front of the peloton but with 75kms to go, an animated Mark Cavendish demanded more work from the other teams who were rolling along.
Lars Boom took the second sprint of the day at San Guillard after Juan Antonio Flecha led out the sprint. Mark Cavendish (pictured below0 finished seventh in the sprint behind Greipel and Sagan.
The gap started to drop and it was down to thirty seconds as we went into the final forty kilometres.
The peloton could see their prey and with 37kms to go, it was all over.
Team Sky, who felt the best way to protect their riders was to lead from the front did so with Brits Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh and Ian Stannard all putting in some good work.
The Sky Blues of Omega Pharma took over with 24kms remaining as the road changed from the N198 to the D10, the D107 and the D107 by pass.
Jonnie Hoogerland hit an advertising hoarding and crashed just before the village of Borigo as those at the front headed towards Biguglia and soon after there was another crash with two Cannondale and Lampre riders down as well as one from Sky.
Into the last ten kilometres and with race officials trying to move a team bus which had broken down inches from the line and a couple of hundred yards from where it was to park with all the other buses, the 198 riders surged onwards.
There was another massive crash just after the final turn involving Mark Cavendish who swerved to avoid those including Cannondale's Peter Sagan and Andre Greipel on the floor in a crash that took down at least eight riders.
Nicky Terpstra went away and it went down to a sprint which Argos Shimano's Marcel Kittel took the win in 4.56.22. Second was Alexander Kristoff of Katusha ahead of Danny Van Poppel Vacansoleil-DCM, David Millar of Garmin-Sharp and Matteo Trentin.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service