Urtasun opens ENECO with podium

Pablo Urtasun made his first race back since the Tour de France a success by claiming the combativity classification on today's ENECO Tour opener.

The 203,9km leg from Waalwijk to Middelburg was destine for a sprint finish, and Marcel Kittel lived up to the billing as the strongest sprinter in the race by besting young Frenchman Arnaud Démare and BMC's Taylor Phinney. Prior to the sprint, Urtasun and Accent Jobs - Willems Veranda's Staf Scheirlinckx had spent the day up ahead of the pack. The Euskaltel hard-man claimed the first intermediate sprint on offer and also the first Primus Checkpoint, resulting in him being awarded the jersey on the picture above afterwards.

The team's main GC candidate, Ion Izagirre, stayed with the pack and thus remains in contention ahead of tomorrow's team time trial.

Stage one results:

• (1, Marcel Kittel (Argos - Shimano), 5:38:28)
• 84, Víctor Cabedo, s.t.
• 105, Alan Pérez, s.t.
• 110, Ion Izagirre, s.t.
• 148, Jorge Azanza, 4:05
• 153, Adrián Sáez, 6:04
• 154, Pablo Urtasun, s.t.
• 162, Miguel Minguez, 7:31

Photo: www.cyclingnews.com