Accents Jobs-Wanty rider Danilo Napolitano took the bunch sprint on the first stage of the Three Days Of West Flanders race in Belgium.
The race left Brugge in the direction of Harelbeke and saw Accent Jobs' James Vanlandschoot, Christophe Pfingsten (Cyclingteam de Rijke) and Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen) stay away for 158km of this 174.5km stage.
After the trip who had taken all the sprint points were caught, Things got fraught in the peloton riding in a tailwind and there were a number of crashes.
The biggest crashes came inside the final three kilometres and saw Mark Cavendish's chance of a stage win end when his lead out man Gert Steegmans went down.
Those who stayed out of trouble included Danilo Napolitano and the Italian took the sprint to win in a time of 4.06.12 with Tom Van Asbroeck of the Topsport team second and Vacansoleil's Barry Markus in third.
Mark Cavendish came home 23rd.
Omega Pharma's Kristof Vandewalle continues to lead by eight seconds over Radio Shack-Leopard's Tiago Machado with Sunday's stage remaining.