Mark Cavendish wins first stage, crash ends Kittel's hopes 1km from finish

The Briton, who rides for Dimension Data, beat a star-studded field with Niccolo Bonifazio coming in third and Sky's Elia Viviani finishing fifth.

However, Marcel Kittel crashed out just over a kilometre from the finish as several riders fell on a corner with the route hitting a pinch point.

It was Cavendish's first win of the season following a ride on an incredibly flat course in the UAE.

“I can’t fault anyone in the team,” Cavendish said after the victory. “If I’d lost it would have been only my fault. It was the same finish as last year and I was only third then, with us having made some mistakes.

"We went through what we did wrong last year, tried to do the complete opposite and that’s what happened.”

1. Mark Cavendish (Britain / Dimension Data) 4:36:56"

2. Andre Greipel (Germany / Lotto) +4"

3. Manuele Mori (Italy / UAE Team Emirates)

4. Niccolo Bonifazio (Italy / Bahrain) +6"

5. Mirco Maestri (Italy / Bardiani Valvole) +8"

6. Kazushige Kuboki (Japan / Nippo)

7. Simone Consonni (Italy / UAE Team Emirates) +10"

8. Elia Viviani (Italy / Team Sky)

9. Roger Kluge (Germany / Orica)

10. Alexander Porsev (Russia / Gazprom)

11. Matteo Pelucchi (Italy / BORA)

12. Nicola Ruffoni (Italy / Bardiani Valvole)

13. Eduard Michael Grosu (Romania / Nippo)

14. Enrico Battaglin (Italy / LottoNL)

15. Iuri Filosi (Italy / Nippo)

16. Ruediger Selig (Germany / BORA)

17. Mark Renshaw (Australia / Dimension Data)

18. Rick Zabel (Germany / Katusha)

19. Marco Canola (Italy / Nippo)

20. Rui Costa (Portugal / UAE Team Emirates)

21. Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (South Africa / Dimension Data)

22. Ben Swift (Britain / UAE Team Emirates)

23. Riccardo Minali (Italy / Astana)

24. Martijn Verschoor (Netherlands / Novo Nordisk)

25. Davide Martinelli (Italy / Quick-Step)

26. Sean De Bie (Belgium / Lotto)

27. Fabio Aru (Italy / Astana)

28. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Bahrain)

29. Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands / Sunweb)

30. Andrea Guardini (Italy / UAE Team Emirates)