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Cavendish takes yellow jersey in Tour de France 1st stage

Xinhua, July 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

British rider Mark Cavendish achieved another career milestone on Saturday by claiming the first stage victory at the 2016 Tour de France in Utah Beach Sainte-Marie-du-Mont.

It has been the 31-year-old' s first yellow jersey victory of his career as Cavendish clocked four hours 13 minutes and 55 seconds to finish the 188km ride, ahead of Marcel Kittel and Peter Sagan.

He previously led the Giro d' Italia and the Vuelta a Espana before coming to ride cycling' s greatest road race representing Team Dimension Data and recording his 27th stage win of career.

With the victory, Cavendish is within seven of Eddy Merckx' s record of 34 stage wins and just one behind second-placed Bernard Hinault.

"It' s phenomenal," said the Briton, who' s been training on the track for much of the season in preparation for the Olympic Games. "It really is phenomenal. I don' t really know what to say. It was a big goal."

"The team had the polka dot jersey for a few days last year and we wanted this (the yellow jersey). There is no bigger icon in cycling than the yellow jersey," he added.

Tinkoff team leader Alberto Contador crashed during the opening stage with 81 kilometers yet to be covered, but the Spaniard continued despite falling on his right shoulder and crossed the line in the same time as all the favorites.

Paul Voss took the first polka dot jersey with two points in the King of the Mountains competition at Avranches (20km) and falaise de Champeaux (39km), and Edward Theuns of Belgium, a Trek-Segafredo rider, came out the best young rider on 4:14:05.

A total of 198 riders started the first stage of the 103rd Tour de France in front of the Mont-Saint-Michel. Endit