Spain's Alejandro Valverde won the opening stage of the Tour de France to claim the coveted yellow jersey.

The Caisse d'Epargne rider caught Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen to finish ahead of Belgium's Philippe Gilbert, with Jerome Pineau of France in third.

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Britain's David Millar was an impressive 11th and Mark Cavendish finished in the peloton.

Local boy Lilian Jegou and Spaniard David De La Fuente spent 185km of the 197.5km race from Brest to Pulmelac in front but were caught by the peloton with 7km remaining.

With 400m to go Kirchen made a dash to the line but in a sprint finish he could not hold off the impressive Valverde, who finished in 4 hours 36 seconds at an average speed of 42.92km/h

In the absence of some of the sport's biggest names, this promises to be one of the most open Tours in its 95-year history.

Last year's winner Alberto Contador is not defending his title after joining Team Astana, who were banned from competing for their involvement, albeit under different management, in a number of positive drug tests.

Belgian sprint specialist Tom Boonen, American Floyd Landis, Michael Rasmussen, Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich are all missing having besmirched the sport in recent years.

That means the only Tour winner among the 180 riders is the Spaniard Oscar Pereiro, who was named the 2006 winner after Landis tested positive for testosterone.

More to follow.

(BBC)

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