Colnago's Sacha Modolo made light of tough conditions as he beat home favourites Matti Breschel and Michael Morkov to win stage one of the Tour of Denmark.

Strong cross winds caught out a number of the favourites for the title, including three-times winner Jakob Fuglsang and Michael Rasmussen, both of whom finished in the peloton one minute and 34 seconds adrift of Modolo.

A group of four including Rene Jorgensen (Christina Watches-Ofone), Nikola Aistrup (Team Concordia Forsikring - Himmerland), Alessandro Bazzana (Team Type 1 - Sanofi) and Patrick Clausen (Denmark) formed an early breakaway in the 171km stage.

Despite opening up a six minute gap on the peloton, they were caught when the course turned into the wind, but not before Bazzana had claimed a time bonus by winning the day's only mountain sprint.

Eurosport