Tour de Yorkshire 2015: Heartbreak for Team Sky’s Ben Swift as he crashes out in Yorkshire

Team Sky’s Lars Petter Nordhaug won the first stage of the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire in Scarborough

Lars Petter Nordhaug (centre) clinches victory on Scarborough seafront on Friday (AP)

Team Sky’s Lars Petter Nordhaug won the first stage of the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire in Scarborough on Friday after an exacting stage in which two of the biggest names in the field dropped out.

The Norwegian sprinted clear of Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) in front of huge crowds on the Scarborough seafront. The trio were part of a five-man breakaway which emerged after the final climb at Robin Hood’s Bay.

But while Nordhaug could celebrate victory, Team Sky’s Plan A fell apart when Yorkshireman Ben Swift was caught up in a major crash heading towards Whitby and was forced to abandon, along with several other riders.

Team Sky were leading the peloton at the time and Swift and Ian Boswell were involved as several riders tumbled on a wet section of road during a descent in the North Yorkshire Moors, two-thirds of the way through the 174km (109-mile) stage from Bridlington to Scarborough. Moments earlier, Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise’s Tim Declercq, one of two riders in a breakaway, had gone straight on at the same corner and landed in a hedge before remounting.

NFTO’s Eddie Dunbar, 18, also abandoned with a suspected broken clavicle while Swift was taken to hospital for further checks after the race.

Star sprinter Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin), who won the opening stage of the Tour de France in Harrogate last year, was racing for the first time in two months after a virus and his rustiness showed as he climbed off midway through the stage after falling more than six minutes behind.

Sir Bradley Wiggins, competing for his own development team, elected to ride conservatively and stay safe.

Nordhaug leads by four seconds, from Voeckler, heading into today’s second stage from Selby to York.