Thomas is riding the Tour de France in support of Chris Froome and the Team Sky leader started his bid for a fourth title with an impressive ride, finishing the stage in sixth, 12 seconds behind Thomas – and, more importantly, staying upright.

Rain throughout the day made the Dusseldorf course treacherous, with a number of riders crashing on ice-like corners. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), six times a top ten finisher at the Tour, was the day’s biggest casualty, with the Spaniard forced to abandon after a heavy fall. Valverede was later confirmed to have broken his kneecap having slid into the barriers lining the road. Bahrain-Merida leader Jon Izaguirre crashed on the same corner to become the second GC hopeful to leave the race on day one.

To compound the misery of Valverde’s Movistar team, Nairo Quintana, who has twice finished second behind Froome at the Tour, lost 36 seconds to the Team Sky man to put the Colombian firmly on the back foot with just 14km raced.

Richie Porte (BMC Racing), who has widely been touted as Froome’s main rival for the Tour de France title, scarcely fared better than Quintana, losing 35 seconds to Froome.

In fact, four Team Sky riders finished in the top ten, with Michal Kwiatkowski finishing eighth as the British-based WorldTour squad firmly stamped its authority on the race at the first opportunity.

The second stage of the Tour de France will see the peloton tackle a 203.5km route from Dusseldorf to Liege. With the stage expected to finish in a bunch sprint, Thomas will be hopeful of holding onto the yellow jersey.