They were quite literally off and running in the Tour de Yorkshire.

Some of the world’s top cyclists raced through the Yorkshire countryside after a spectacular start in Bridlington.

And for some, that first leg of the three-stage race was as far as they got.

The inaugural Tour de Yorkshire proved a brutal one as two of the star names in the field were forced to abandon before the end of stage one.

Team Sky’s Ben Swift, one of the race favourites, was caught in a major crash on a wet section of road in the North Yorkshire Moors which ripped apart the peloton, while German sprinter Marcel Kittel had already climbed off, unable to keep up in his first race back after illness.

Rotherham-born Swift was one of several riders caught in a crash as riders tumbled on a wet section of road during a descent in the Moors, around two thirds of the way through the 174km stage from Bridlington to Scarborough.

Moments earlier, Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise’s Tim Declercq, one of two riders in a breakaway, had gone straight on at the same corner and landed in a hedge before remounting.

NFTO’s Eddie Dunbar, at 18 the youngest rider in the field, also abandoned after the crash with a suspected broken clavicle. Dunbar had been part of an early break and was the first man over the major climb of the day, the Cote de Rosedale Abbey.

Kittel, who won the opening stage of the Tour de France in Harrogate last year, was racing for the first time in two months after a virus, and his limited training showed as he climbed off midway through the stage after falling more than six minutes down.

Sir Bradley Wiggins was doing his best to stay safe, riding steadily towards the rear of the pack.

There were huge crowds along parts of the leg - especially in Whitby at at the finish in Scarborough, where Norway’s Lars-Petter Nordhaug raced through as the winner.

His time was 4 hours 22 minutes and 38 seconds.

There is keen Huddersfield interest in the race, in the shape of Olympic track star Ed Clancy and teenage New Mill rider Gabz Cullaigh, who are both former Holme Valley Wheelers.

Both will be hoping to put on a good show - especially when the race reaches Stage 3 on Sunday.

That’s when the riders race from Wakefield to Leeds on a 167-km leg which brings them through Huddersfield and Calderdale.