France’s Paul Magnier sprints into pink on crash-marred Giro d’Italia opening stage

22-year-old Paul Magnier won his maiden Grand Tour stage (Reuters)

French sprinter Paul Magnier won the biggest stage of his young career as he overcame a crash-marred finale to seal pink on stage one of the Giro d’Italia.

A massive crash around 600m from the finish brought down around 15 riders across the width of the road, leaving only 11 in contention for the win.

Magnier followed the wheel of Tobias Lund Andresen before exploding out of his slipstream, pipping the Dane and Britain’s Ethan Vernon to the line in Burgas, Bulgaria. Home favourite and multiple Giro stage winner Jonathan Milan was fourth.

22-year-old Magnier will wear the leader’s pink jersey - the maglia rosa - on stage two, the second of three days in Bulgaria, which hosts the race’s Grande Partenza for the first time.

His 10 bonus seconds for the stage win put him four seconds ahead of Lund Andersen overall, with breakaway rider Manuele Tarozzi third, also four seconds behind, having picked up six bonus seconds at the Red Bull Kilometre.

Magnier said: “I'm so proud of the team and also my performance. It was really hectic in the final because it was a pretty easy day so everybody was really fresh. Then I was in a really good position, we knew the narrow road in the final would be tricky, so we tried to get in a good position. Then in the final, [teammates] Jasper [Stuyven] and Dries [Van Gestel] did an amazing job and I could finish it off, so I'm super proud.

“There are a lot of sprinters here at the start, and it was the first time that I could sprint against these big sprinters, and I'm super happy I can beat them with a team performance.”

The Soudal-QuickStep rider previously wore the maglia rosa at the under-23 version of the Giro and added: “I have some nice memories already with the pink jersey at the Giro Next Gen and now I think I will enjoy it too at the Giro d'Italia.”