Mark Cavendish's dream of claiming his first Tour de France yellow jersey disappeared because of a crash near the end of a farcical opening stage. Germany's Marcel Kittel won the stage, which had a confusing end after a team bus became wedged on the finish line. With the riders less than 15km away, the finish was temporarily brought 3km forward but that decision was reversed when the bus was moved. "The problem was the change in the finish," said Manxman Cavendish, 28. The Omega Pharma Quickstep rider added: "With 5km to go we heard the sprint was in 2km. I didn't crash, I was just behind the crash. "I'm lucky I didn't come down. My team-mate Tony Martin is in a state - he's not in a good way." Early reports suggest time-trial specialist Martin has a suspected broken collarbone. Britain's Geraint Thomas, who predicted in his BBC Sport column there would be "carnage" in the opening days of the race, was also caught up in the crash and the Team Sky rider has been taken for a precautionary X-ray. It was a farcical end to the opening stage of the 100th Tour, which is visiting the Mediterranean island of Corsica for the first time. The riders were within 20km of the finish when the Orica GreenEdge team bus became wedged under the overhead banner across the finish line. As officials and police frantically tried to move the stricken bus, a statement went out over the race radio, as the riders raced inside the final 10km, that the finish would be moved to the 3km to go banner. That in itself looked problematic with a dangerous-looking kink in the road at that point but, as the riders began their sprint, the bus was moved and the finish line restored. However, a big crash that also brought down two-time winner Alberto Contador delayed Cavendish, meaning he was unable to contest the finish. Slovakia's Peter Sagan, a rival to Cavendish for the green points jersey, also went down in the crash, while Andre Greipel, another rider who had been hoping to contest the sprint finish, had his progress halted by a mechanical problem. All that paved the way for Argos Shimano's Kittel, a fine sprinter in his own right, to pip Norwegian Alexander Kristoff of the Katusha team at the finish line, while Danny van Poppel of the Vacansoleil team came in third just ahead of Britain's Garmin Sharp rider David Millar. Sunday's second stage runs for 156km across Corsica from Bastia to Ajaccio.