Orica Green Edge's Simon Gerrans won the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco in the Basque Country today.
Stage One was a 156.5km stage which started and finished in the coastal town of Elgoibar and attracted some big names including Alberto Contador and Philippe Gilbert in a field of 161 riders.
Five riders had got away initally but that was down to Laurent Didier (RadioShack Leopard Trek) and Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural), who had a 3.15 lead with 68kms to go.
That lead was down to 1.22 with less than thirty kilometres to go and twelve kilometres later, it was all over thanks to some good work by BMC's Steve Cummings.
The riders had just reached the Alto de San Miguel when there was a crash and a number of riders went down including Dries Devenyns who broke his left arm and has returned to Belgium for surgery and team-mate Tony Martin.
The German carried on as the race turned into a bunch sprint which Orica Green Edge's Simon Gerrans won in a time of 4.06.33 ahead of Peter Velits, Angel Arcos, Francesco Gavazzi and Jacob Fuglsang.
With no bonuses on the finish line, Gerrans goes into tomorrow's second stage in the yellow jersey.