Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile) began his bid to win the Tour of Britain in style with a powerful finish to take the first stage on Monday in Southampton.

Cavendish, who held the yellow jersey after the prologue, stormed away in the sprint finish after good work by teammates Roger Hammond and Frantisek Rabon had given him an ideal platform.

The 22-year-old from the Isle of Man blew away Steven Caethoven and Juan Jose Haedo in the final 200 meters to clinch his 10th stage win of the season. and take a 14-second lead over Russia's Nikolai Trusov. Holland's Piet Rooijakkers, who took the green jersey for the top sprinter, sits two seconds further back in third after the 86-mile stage from Reading to Southampton..

Cavendish was happy to share the credit with Hammond and Rabon.

"It's a fantastic feeling to know that I will be in yellow for another day but I can't take any of the credit today," said Cavendish. "I've got to give all of that to my teammates because they did an amazing job for me.

"It was tough for the first 50 kilometers but Roger and Frankie knew what they were doing and they did it for me perfectly. And from the position they gave me in the final 200m I couldn't really lose the stage.

"It couldn't have gone any better, but there's a long way and a lot of tough stages to go. But I'm only one win away from my target of wins for the season and that would be an amazing feeling to achieve that this week."

WADA welcomes doping summit
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday welcomed plans for an international summit on doping in cycling next month after this year's Tour de France was once again rocked by doping scandals.

"WADA is willing to further assist cycling and all other sports in finding solutions to the doping issue," said WADA president Richard Pound in a statement.

The summit, which will be held in Paris on October 22 and 23, was organized by the French Sports minister Roselyne Bachelot. Participants will include the UCI, organizers of the major cycling events, a number of national cycling federations and national doping agencies.

This year's Tour de France was rocked by drugs scandals, with pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan testing positive for blood doping after winning the 13th stage, Italian Cristian Moreni ejected for testing positive for testosterone and German cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz testing positive for testosterone.

Overall leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark was thrown out after a row over missed drugs tests.