Tour De France Stage 1 Leeds to Harrogate

Cav possibly injured his collarbone 

Germany's Marcel Kittel won the first stage of the Tour de France from Leeds to Harrogate as Mark Cavendish crashed at the end of the sprint finish.

The British sprint specialist crashed with about 200m to go and appeared to suffer an injury to his shoulder.

He was desperate to claim the leader's yellow jersey for the first time in his career in Harrogate, the home town of his mother Adele.

But he could now be out of the remainder of the three-week race.

Defending champion, Sky's Chris Froome, finished safely in sixth place, four seconds behind Giant-Shimano's Kittel, with Peter Sagan second.

The Grand Depart was held in Yorkshire for the first time with more than one million fans, with 230,000 in Leeds and 10,000 on one of the climbs at Buttertubs.

After a ceremonial start, which saw the Duchess of Cambridge cut the ribbon, the race headed out into the Yorkshire dales.

Veteran Jens Voight, in his 17th Tour at the age of 42, led a breakaway from the start.

Initially it was a three-man attack with Benoit Jarrier and Nicolas Edet, but Voigt went it alone at Newbiggin and at one stage had a three minute advantage.

He was eventually reeled in by the peloton with 37 miles to go in the 118-mile opener.

The race geared up for a hotly contested sprint in front of hundreds of thousands of fans but heading into the final straight, Omega Pharma QuickStep's Cavendish collided with Australia's Simon Gerrans and both of them crashed to the ground.

Cavendish managed to get up and gingerly cross the line, holding his right arm and was then taken to hospital to confirm the extent if his injury

Quick jersey round up - yellow (GC) Kittel, Green (points) Coquard, polka-dot (king of the mountains) Voigt, White (young rider) Sagan. Lead team is Sky, combativity award (most aggresive rider) unsurprisingly goes to Jens Voigt

Stage result

1. Marcel Kittel (Ger/Giant-Shimano) 4:44:07"

2. Peter Sagan (Svk/Cannondale) Same time

3. Ramunas Navardauskas (Lit/Garmin-Sharp)

4. Bryan Coquard (Fra/Europcar)

5. Michael Rogers (Aus/Tinkoff-Saxo)

6. Chris Froome (GB/Team Sky)

7. Alexander Kristoff (Nor/Katusha)

8. Sep Vanmarcke (Bel/Belkin)

9. Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa/Movistar)

10. Michael Albasini (Swi/Orica GreenEdge)