Naples, Italy – British sprint king Mark Cavendish won a chaotic opening stage of the Giro d'Italia on Saturday to pull on the race leader's pink jersey for the first time in his career.
The Isle of Man rider, winning his 11th stage on the epic Italian race, dominated a small but hectic group sprint to leave Elia Viviani of the Cannondale team in second place after nearly three hours of frantic racing around Naples.
Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni was third while Australian Matthew Goss finished fifth after running out of steam in the final 200 metres of the 130 km race opener.
Cavendish, winning his first Grand Tour stage for his new team Omega-Pharma, will now wear the pink jersey into Sunday's second stage – a team time trial over 17.4 km on the island of Ischia. – Sapa-AFP