Rory Townsend got Canyon Eisberg’s Tour of Britain off to a flying start with a superb ride in the breakaway on stage one.
The 23-year-old, from Addlestone in Surrey, scooped points in both sprints and mountains competitions during the 174.8km dash from Pembrey Country Park to Newport on Sunday.
He was the final escapee to be swept up by the bunch after dropping his five companions with back-to-back attacks in the closing 15km.
Lotto Soudal’s André Greipel then sprinted to glory ahead of Mitchelton Scott’s Caleb Ewan and Quick-Steps Floors’ Fernando Gaviria in the finale.
Canyon Eisberg’s general classification man Max Stedman finished in the front group, alongside team-mates Ryan Christensen and Andrew Tennant.
Townsend established the day’s breakaway alongside five companions, including Nicholas Dlamini, of World Tour outfit Team Dimension Data.
Rich Handley, of Madison Genesis, JLT Condor’s Tom Moses, Mark Downey, from Team Wiggins, and Great Britain’s Matt Bostock completed the group.
And they spent the majority of the day up the road, scooping up five of the six primes.
Townsend won the second intermediate sprint – holding off Bostock and Moses to cross the line first in Llandovery.
However, Bostock took the opener in Camarthen and was second to Moses in the third in USK to claim the Eisberg sprints jersey after stage one.
Meanwhile, South African Dlamini won the first two KOMs – on Bethlehem Hill and Defynnog – to take the Skoda mountains jersey.
The break had been swept up ahead of the final KOM on Belmont Hill, which came with just 8km remaining.
Townsend hit out twice on the run in to that climb, shaking off his companions before he was eventually swallowed up.
Geraint Thomas lit the race up on Belmont Hill, with Quick-Step Floors’ Julian Alaphilipe following the Tour de France champion’s wheel.
Mads Würtz Schmidt, of Katusha Alpecin, and Direct Energie’s Jonathan Hivert responded from the peloton, while Bob Jungels also jumped clear in support of team-mate Alaphilipe.
The dangerous quartet briefly threatened to mug the field before the sprinters’ teams got down to business to set up a bunch kick in Newport.
And that kick was won by Greipel from Aussie Ewan as the duo overhauled the early kick of Gaviria.
Townsend’s team-mates Stedman (46th), Christensen (53rd) and Tennant (62nd) all finished inside the bunch on the same time as Greipel.
Meanwhile, Alex Paton and Dexter Gardias crossed the line shortly afterwards as they lost 3min 55sec. Townsend was 4.47 down at the finish.
Monday’s second stage is a 174.9km race from Cranbrook to Barnstaple, featuring the category one climb of Challacombe Hill.
Greipel will wear the leader’s jersey. Ewan, who is four seconds down on the overall by virtue of bonuses, will don Greipel’s points jersey.
Dlamini heads the mountains classification with 13 points. Townsend scooped eight on stage one to sit fourth.
The Canyon Eisberg man is joint-second in the sprints competition. He and Moses have four points, with Bostock leading the way on seven.