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BENDIGO’S Zak Dempster was not seriously hurt in a fall in the final stretch of Saturday night’s and Sunday morning’s start to his first Tour de France.
The cycling ace from central Victoria is racing for NetApp-Endura in the great race.
“First stage done. Was a bit wild and I loved it,” Dempster tweeted.
“Had a crash 15km to go, but I’m alright.”
Dempster was amazed by the crowd support.
“I imagine that’s what walking onto the MCG on grand final day is like, but we walked through the MCG for 200km.
“Thank you Yorkshire!”
Stage one from Leeds to Harrogate was dominated by Germany’s Jens Voigt for many kilometres.
Voigt was caught by the peloton at 60km to go and it then became a sprint duel to decide the 190km stage.
Marcel Kittel won the sprint after England’s Mark Cavendish and Australia’s Simon Gerrans both crashed in their high-paced pursuit of victory.
It was back-to-back opening stage victories for Kittel as he outsprinted Peter Sagan and Lithuania’s Ramunas Navardauskas.
Dempster starts the 201km stage from York to Sheffield in 169th place on the general classificiation.
NetApp-Endura’s Paul Voss is in 12th place.
Check out the good luck messages to Zak Dempster on the Bendigo Advertiser website. You can send your good luck video message for Zak to leigh.sharp@fairfaxmedia.com.au