One year ago Gerald Ciolek won a stage and wore the leader's jersey in the Bayern Rundfahrt but there was no repeat for the German in the first stage of this year's race. After a wet and dangerous day, Ciolek finished outside the top 10 in the first bunch sprint.

Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling) won the opening stage of the Bayern Rundfahrt by out sprinting Yauheni Hutarovich (AG2R La Mondiale) and Steele Von Hoff (Garmin Sharp) in a rain soaked race. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung were hoping to set up Gerald Ciolek for the stage but unfortunately after numerous crashes in the final kilometers the German would finish in 13th place today.

Dominic Weinstein (Rad-Net Rose), Julian Kern (AG2R La Mondiale) and Jan Droste (Heizomat) would be the 3 early attackers of the race and the trio would go on to build up a lead of 6 minutes. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung, Team NetApp-Endura, Team Sky and Team Katusha would be the teams that would then do the majority of the work to reel in the break. The peloton timed the chase to perfection as with 3km to go, the catch was made to set up the field sprint.

Coming into the closing kilometers the soaked roads caused a few spills and one of the unlucky riders would be Jay Thomson. Thankfully Thomson was able to get up and finish the stage but as the South African forms an integral part of our leadout, it made bringing Ciolek to a good position for the sprint that much more difficult. The pursuit to the line didn’t slow down as Team Katusha took control with 1 km to go. Haussler would be fastest though, taking his first victory in over a year.

Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung can now look forward to tomorrows stage where the climbers should come to the fore, both Louis Meintjes and Linus Gerdemann finished with the main bunch today so a good result tomorrow is certainly possible for the team.

"3 riders broke away pretty early and after 50km’s our team took responsibility and rode on the front so that the gap didn’t get too big," Directeur Sportif Jens Zemke said. "Our guys managed to always keep the lead under 5 minutes. The rain came down really heavily all day and in one of the final laps Jay crashed, we hope it is nothing serious as he still getting checked out.

"The sprint didn’t go too well for us today, I think Gerald finished between 10th and 15th. We are now looking forward to tomorrows stage where our climbers will get a chance."