THE inaugural Tour de Yorkshire brought top-class cycling to Ryedale – if not happy memories for home favourite Ben Swift.

Team Sky had been targeting overall victory for the 27-year-old Yorkshireman, but he crashed out amid a huge pile-up on stage one near Grosmont, in the North York Moors, after a brief shower created a slippery descent for the peloton.

Star sprinter Marcel Kittel was another top name among the several casualties on the opening 174-kilometre stage from Bridlington to Scarborough.

Swift’s Team Sky team-mate, Lars Petter Nordhaug, emerged from the mayhem to win the stage in front of huge crowds on Scarborough’s seafront – en route to overall victory.

Team Sky sporting director Rod Ellingworth said: “This is cycling, the highs and lows.

“We always said if we lose Ben, Lars is the guy, he’s next in line, so for Team Sky it’s worked out but it’s sad for Ben - it was his home race and he was well up for it.”

The mayhem came after Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise’s Tim Declercq, one of two riders in a breakaway, went straight on at a corner and landed in a hedge before remounting. The peloton approached unaware and chaos followed as several riders hit the deck.

The event itself – a spin-off to last year’s wonderful Tour de France Grand Depart in Yorkshire - was a huge success as thousands again lined the roads, but the first day’s racing was defined by that crash.

“It was just really slippy,” said Swift’s team-mate, Philip Deignan.

“It just came on really quickly, the shower, just as we were coming in and it’s a 20 per cent descent so it was probably the worst moment for it to happen.”

As Swift headed to hospital, his remaining team-mates tried to regroup and Deignan and Nordhaug got into a five-man break which got away on the final climb of the day out of Robin Hood’s Bay.

It came down to a sprint on the seafront, with Nordhaug beating Europcar’s Thomas Voeckler and Stephane Rossetto, of Cofidis.

“It’s great to take the victory,” the Norwegian said. “The team were so strong, riding all day to make it hard. We were riding for Ben Swift but he crashed pretty hard which is a shame. Then I had to try and do something.”

The big crash also did for NFTO’s Eddie Dunbar, at 18 the youngest rider in the field. The Irishman, who had been first over the biggest climb of the day at Rosedale Abbey, was taken to hospital with a suspected broken clavicle.

Day two, a 174km route from Selby to York, also passed through Ryedale.

It was won by Dutchman Moreno Hofland – giving his LottoNL-Jumbo team their first victory of the season - as he edged out IAM Cycling’s Matteo Pelucchi in a sprint finish.

Nordhaug, finishing in the front group, tacked a few more seconds on to his overall lead, though, allowing him to hold on for the race win in Leeds the following day.

Hofland said: “I had a rough beginning to the year, and this victory gives me a boost before the Giro d’Italia and I hope to be up there again.”

The stage went via Beverley and Norton, before heading west to complete three laps of a circuit around York.

“I think it’s been as good (as last year),” said Team Sky sporting director Rod Ellingworth of the atmosphere.

“Certainly considering the weather was not so good. All the main towns and villages were heaving with people having a good time.”

 

• LOUISE MAHE won the Tour de Yorkshire women’s race in a photo finish in York.

The IKON-Mazda rider edged out Eileen Roe (Wiggle Honda) and Katie Curtis (Pearl Izumi) after four laps of the 20-kilometre city circuit on Saturday.

Ninety-nine riders had lined up for the race on the circuit which was also part of stage two of the men’s race later in the day.

“Someone has said the average speed was 24.7mph so it was really quick,” London-based Mahe said.

“There were crowds all around the course and people cheering us on. At one point I just thought, ‘Wow, this is quite cool’.”

Katie Archibald, another Pearl Izumi rider, won the sprint competition - crossing the line second after the first and second laps, and first after the third. Both she and Curtis were helped by team-mate Dame Sarah Storey, the three-time British national track champion and multiple Paralympic Games gold medal winner.