Wiggins completes first stage of Tour; TOUR DE FRANCE.

BRADLEY Wiggins negotiated the first stage of the Tour de France in a frantic finish in Seraing.

Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford declared mission accomplished as Wiggins finished 16th on yesterday's 198-kilometres undulating loop through the Ardennes region of Belgium around Liege with the same time as rising star Peter Sagan of Slovakia, who claimed victory on his Tour debut.

Wiggins remained second overall behind race leader Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan), who was second, with Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) third.

Defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) was 20th to remain 17 seconds behind Cancellara and ten adrift of Wiggins. "It was a good effort," Brailsford said. "All in all it was important that Brad didn't lose any time."

Wiggins was wearing the green jersey on behalf of Cancellara, who was in the yellow jersey, and all nine Team Sky riders were wearing yellow helmets as leaders of the team classification after the prologue.

Sagan will wear the maillot vert today as he is second behind Cancellara in the points competition. Wiggins and his Team Sky colleagues were prominent at the front of the peloton throughout the day, but dropped back on a wide expanse of road by the river Meuse as the route returned towards Liege before moving through the bunch on the final 2.4km ascent to the finish.

"He was quite confident," Brailsford added. "We'd had a look that on the climb he could cruise up. It was easier to move up on a climb than it was on the flat. He just waited for that and moved up very easily on the climb."

Wiggins has lost time on short, sharp ascents in the past, but was buoyed by wins in the Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie and Criterium du Dauphine this season.

Brailsford added: "As everybody was going full gas up there he was riding up the outside making up 10, 15, 20 places. He was comfortable. I don't think that's still the case."

After the day's early six-man break was swallowed up, Cancellara attacked a third of the way up the final climb; it seemed only Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) could go with him.

Boasson Hagen bridged the gap and the trio were clear with 500m to go, but Sagan powered away to claim a first ever Tour stage win.

"Eddy was going to go for the stage," Brailsford said. "I think he bridged across well but by the time he got there he ran out of legs."

The day was relatively uneventful until the final climb. Yohann Gene (Europcar) led the escape from the moment the peloton left the neutralised zone, at the intermediate sprint to collect 20 points.

Two minutes 35 seconds behind them, the peloton crossed, with world champion Mark Cavendish contesting the sprint.