Thrilling cycling as Kelso stages first stage of Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men

With the stage starting and finishing in Kelso, the riders tackled an undulating 181.9km course with 1,885m of climbing and three categorised climbs - two of which were scaled twice.

A sprint to the line saw Magnier fire to the victory as Ethan Vernon (Israel - Premier Tech) soared to second, while young rider Bob Donaldson (TRINITY Racing) secured third.

Magnier’s win - his sixth of the year - saw him take the leader’s jersey and the best young rider jersey.

Speaking after the stage, the Frenchman said: “I’m really happy to take the victory for the team today.

"Incredible - we did an amazing team performance today. We tried Remco (Evenepoel) and Julian (Alaphilippe) on the climb but it was really hard so in the end, they tried for me in the bunch race. They give you wings when such big riders are working for you.”

It was also a great day for Peebles resident Callum Thornley (TRINITY Racing), who beat Callum Ormiston (Global 6 United) to the first King of the Mountains win of the race, which also saw him awarded the Combativity award.

Thornley said later: “It’s pretty special to do that on home roads. That was my plan at the start of the race - to get in the breakaway - and to make it happen is pretty special.

“It was good seeing all the Scottish flags up there. I’ll have to try and get in the breakaway again and get as many points as I can. The goal will be to defend it, there’s going to be some hard days out, we’ll see what we can do.”

Shortly after, the first intermediate sprint through Melrose saw Julius Johansen (Sabgal/Anicolor) win ahead of Thornley, before summiting the second climb of the day to Dingleton.

The second-category climb, averaging 6.1%, saw Thornley take maximum points once again in a battle against Ormiston.

Inside the final 100km, Thornley once again led the break up the third categorised climb, Dunion Hill, securing his third and final King of the Mountain win of the day to take the overall jersey into the next stage.

Coming back through Kelso with 55km to go, the riders raced to the line for the second intermediate sprint of the day. Johansen picked up three seconds and the sprint win, while Ben Turner (INEOS Grenadiers) surged for the line from the peloton to take third.

As Thornley took another King of the Mountains win up Scott’s View, the gap to the peloton was reduced to 56 seconds.

Coming up Dingleton for the final climb of the day, Turner and Evenepoel took to the front to lead out the two teams, with British champion Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) on his teammates' wheel, but a sharp final bend saw Hayter pushed wide and out of contention. But it was Magnier who emerged victorious.

Stage two was taking place in the Tees Valley and North Yorkshire as we were going to press on Wednesday.