Sunday wrap: Top-10 for Viviani, Tour of Britain begins

Vuelta a Espana - Stage 9 » Cartagena › Collado de la Cruz de Caravaca, 184.5km Tour of Britain - Stage 1 » Altrincham › Manchester, 161.6km Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France, 258km

Elia Viviani led home the chasing peloton to pick up ninth place at the Bretagne Classic on a packed Sunday of racing.

The Italian finished strongly in Plouay in a race which saw the Grenadiers come to the fore in the closing stages. Pavel Sivakov was among the contenders at the head of the race, attacking as part of a chase group as the riders took the bell lap.

With a quartet of riders going clear to contest the win, it was French champion Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) who prevailed. A second group filled out much of the top 10 before the bunch sprint, led by Viviani, arrived 35 seconds later. Ethan Hayter was also in the group as he continues his comeback from injury, while earlier in the race, Luke Plapp had helped drive the pace on the front as the tempo began to pick up with around 90km to go.

Tom Pidcock led the INEOS Grenadiers home in 12th as the first stage of Tour of Britain came down to a bunch sprint on a packed Deansgate.

The Grenadiers had helped control the early break, that escaped in the early part of the 161.6km stage from Altrincham, which then threatened to steal the sprinters' thunder by staying clear until the latter part of the stage.

The final rider was only caught on the technical run-in to Manchester city centre, with Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) taking the win from a bunch kick and the overall race lead as Pidcock brought the Grenadiers home.

Sunday also saw stage nine of the Vuelta a Espana, and the final test before the opening rest day.

Geraint Thomas finished alongside Egan Bernal at the end of a stage which saw the general classification times taken ahead of the 2km to go marker. Rain and mud had led to tricky road conditions on the uphill finish.

Bernal crashed early on but was able to remount amid a frantic start to the race, with the peloton split numerous times due to strong winds, before ultimately regrouping.

A breakaway eventually forged clear, with Lennard Kamna (Bora-Hansgrohe) taking the stage win solo.