TEAM Sky’s Lars Petter Nordhaug insisted the raucous British crowd made him feel he was riding on home roads after sprinting to victory in the opening stage of the Tour de Yorkshire.

The 30-year-old Norwegian triumphed from a five-man breakaway at the end of the 174km stage from Bridlington to Scarborough, beating Europcar's Thomas Voeckler and Stephane Rossetto of Cofidis into second and third respectively.

After home favourite and Team Sky leader Ben Swift abandoned the race following a nasty crash, Nordhaug was ably assisted by teammate Philip Deignan to set up a stage win for the British outfit.

And after securing the first leader’s jersey of the three-day race, Nordhaug admits the masses of road-side spectators spurred him on to bring his team glory after Swift’s disappointing exit.

“It’s great to win and with the spectators here it’s massive so I feel I’m riding at home riding for Team Sky so this is really great,” he said.

“The team was so strong and they were riding for the whole day to make it hard and we were riding for Ben Swift but I hear he crashed pretty hard so that’s a shame but then I had to try and do something.

“I felt a bit tired at the start because of Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday but after 100km when we started riding really hard I felt better and better.

“I was afraid of Samuel Sanchez and Thomas Voeckler in the sprint so I tried one attack to see how strong they were but then I only had to try and win the sprint.

“This stage was a lot harder than I thought but that was because we were riding hard as a team and the team did a great job so I think it will be hard over the next two days.”

Erick Rowsell led the charge for the Brits on stage one as he was the highest-placed home rider, although he admitted the chaotic racing played into his hands.

The 24-year-old Madison-Genesis rider crossed the line in 4.23:48 minutes to finish eighth, 1:10 behind Nordhaug.

Meanwhile, Sir Bradley Wiggins finished just under 15 minutes off the pace, having elected to ride conservatively with his attempt on the hour record scheduled for June.

And Rowsell - brother of Olympic champion Joanna - was thrilled to be in a prime position heading into the second day’s racing.

“It was an unusual race,” Rowsell said. “There was a lot of carnage out there but that kind of race suits me quite well.

“I enjoy racing like that so it’s nice for me to be able to get stuck in. The turning point today was obviously on that twisting descent where a few riders went off.

“That was quite a big crash and a number of the big hitters came down. That caused some carnage and the racing was a bit all over the place from then on.”

Following the huge success of 2014’s Yorkshire Grand Dèpart, which was watched at the roadside by crowds of over four million people, the Tour de Yorkshire’s inaugural event began at the seaside town of Bridlington.

The 174km stage featured five climbs and two sprints, as the riders made their way through the North York Moors and spectacular coastal scenery to finish in Scarborough.

Yorkshire Bank is an Official Partner of the Tour de Yorkshire and the ground-breaking Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries initiative. Visit www.ybonline.co.uk