Rohan Dennis wins opening stage as Nibali leads GC contenders

Australian Rohan Dennis recorded the fastest ever average speed in Tour de France history for an individual time trial of 55.446 km/hr and duly claimed the yellow jersey after the opening stage of the 2015 Tour de France in Utrecht, Holland.

The BMC Racing rider produced a tremendous time early on in the stage under the baking continental sun, which was finally tested late doors by Tom Dumoulin, Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin however they could not better it and the Adelaide man basked in the glory.

Chris Froome dug deep to nick eight seconds off Alberto Contador and 11 seconds off Nairo Quintana, however it was reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali who took the honours of the big four GC rivals by finishing the day seven seconds ahead of Briton Froome.

Daniel Teklehaimanot from MTN-Qhubeka got us underway to post the opening time of 16 minutes 30 seconds that was soon eclipsed by Jack Bauer and Australian Luke Durbridge, however it was home hope Jos van Emden who posted the strongest early mark in the sunny conditions before the wind picked up a little.

It came as no surprise to see London 2012 Olympic silver medallist Dennis smash the Dutchman's time next with a classy 14 minutes 56 seconds mark. Tipped by many before the stage, he simply flew around a course that contained very few bends and relied heavily on straight-line speed.

In one of the most incident free days in recent Tour memory, a parade of over 100 riders tried and failed by quite some margin to beat Dennis' time until Dumoulin blistered around the course to send the Dutch fans wild.

Sadly for him and them, he could only finish eight seconds down on Dennis after nearly piling into the back of Tiago Machado on the final corner when he could almost taste victory.

Brits Alex Dowsett and Stephen Cummings both posted solid times before Martin set off in pursuit of Dennis' time. The German cranked out a brilliant ride himself, but Der Panzerwagen could only finish five seconds off the pace for a change.

Swiss sensation Fabian Cancellara is no stranger to TT glory himself and he rolled back the years with a sublime ride of his own, only to lose out to Dennis by six seconds and claim the last place on the day's podium.

It was left to the remaining GC contenders to try and beat Dennis, however Vincenzo Nibali was 43 seconds behind with Chris Froome 50 seconds, Alberto Contador 58 seconds and Nairo Quintana one minute one second after a lung-busting display.

Who else but fresh faced Aussie Rohan Dennis? After excelling on the track for his native Australia, the 25-year-old won the Tour Down Under and has now beefed up his burgeoning road status by blowing the competition away today.

Dennis declared: "I just set a benchmark and made everyone else chase. Everything went perfectly. It's a dream and I always wished to be in this position. It sunk in five minutes ago when I saw the biggest threats coming in behind me."

With very few dramatic moments to call upon during a pedestrian day for Tour fans, Pierre Rolland might regret not putting the hammer down more. The Frenchman is an outside bet to win the race, nevertheless he gave up valuable time to the main GC contenders along with compatriots Thibaut Pinot and Jean-Christophe Peraud. He will need to attack early in the first mountain stages to put a proper marker down now. Honourable mention to Geraint Thomas. With much expected from the Welshman, he could only muster a time 33 seconds down on Dennis when it was tailor made for him to shine.

Sunday's stage is 166km from Utrecht to Zelande after Saturday's amuse-bouche. Not surprisingly, it is also very flat with the intermediate sprint coming up about the 80km mark around Rotterdam. There is the threat of heavy crosswinds to test the riders out throughout the day's racing, but expect the likes of Mark Cavendish, Peter Sagan and Alexander Kristoff to open their shoulders up heading into the home straight as the race for the green jersey hopefully begins with a bang.

It was a long, long wait for Dennis as he saw his rivals fail time and again to beat his time during the Grand Depart, but it was definitely worth it. Jerseys galore!