The HC rated Bayern Rundfahrt race opens up with a flat stage. Theres a couple of climbs late on that could be of interest, and an interemdiate sprint that could interfere with the sprint leadouts - perhaps some will use it to get clear of the peloton, and stay clear at the finish?
Top sprinters in the race include home favourites Greipel, Degenkolb and Haussler, but there is plenty of international competition. Davis, Van Loocke, Haedo, Docker, Napolitano, Santos, Drujon and Manan are all names to look out for. Clearly, winning one of the two flat stages in this race will not be easy!
Attacks all over the place at the start, so no chance for the sprinters in the early sprints. At the first Geslin beats Capecchi, Vigano and Freire.
More riders are up to the break by the 2nd sprint. Bouhanni would have fancied his chances in 3rd wheel, but he got overexcited, and crashed.
Geslin takes sprint win number 2 from O'Loughlin and Zabel. A nice little scalp for the young son of Erik, beating Freire to 3rd place there.
Trent Lowe is the second rider in the race to crash. He looks fine though and safely makes it back to the peloton, meanwhile a new break has formed.
Passeron
Bar
Stallaert
Capecchi
Meyer
Kwok
Ingels
Oliveira
Zabel
Terpstra
With 2 chasers who will soon succesfully increase the break size to 12.
Zirbel
O'Loughlin
Skipping now to the first KoM of the race. 65km to go and the break leads by 5'30. Unsurprisngly, the German teams are keen for the first jersey of the race. Bar beats Zabel for number 1, with points for Zirbel, Meyer and Oliveira aswell.
As you can see though, this climb had narrow roads - and it wont be the last narrow climb in this race either. And look at the carnage it causes in the peloton:
Theres a front group of just 28. This widen to 91 with UniCredit and Hollister leading the charge.
They might not get much more help though. A number of sprinters have been caught out and are in a 42 man group now 3 minutes off the pace. Haedo, Traksel, Drujon, and Greipel - infact the entire WWE team - are caught out. Also the likes of Kiryenka, Sagan, Pasamontes, and Smukulis.
The 2nd Kom has wider roads and in the break Capecchi takes it from Meyer and Ingels. Zabel and Zirbel also score with the same amount of points on offer here as with the 1st climb. With a 2nd and a 4th each, this puts Meyer and Zabel into a share of the jersey's lead at the end of the day.
4 riders were dropped from the break on the climb, and are soon caught by the peloton. Terpstra, Kwok Oliveira, and O'Loughlin
15km to go, and the breaks lead is down to 45 seconds. Surely the rest will follow soon, but they wont go easily! Bar and Zirbel go clear with 10km to go
No chance of the sprinters getting a go at the final sprint then as Bar cruises to the victory there. Zirbel 2nd, Capecchi 3rd
And now the break has just 30 seconds. They seem ready to give up.
5th in line is Bjorn Selander. He takes the turn badly, battling with his balance, straight into the path of Pieter Weening, and down they go!
And down they all go!
There were 73 riders in the group, and 42 of them just hit the floor.
The peloton is down to 22 riders. 6 for UniCredit as they lead the way.
Gavazzi, Bonnet, Van Poppel, Bernucci, Vandborg, Napolitano
Haussler, Wegmann, Sousa, Eichler
Sambris, Scheirlinckx, Mercado
Veelers, Freire
Nishitani, Kwok
Tolleson
Santos
Docker
Geslin
Ovechkin
9 more riders dodged the crash, but were slightly held up. 7 of them are one minute back. Importantly, in here is pre-race favourite Ignatiev. Rolland and Konovalovas are the other team leaders here, and the only ones to have dodged the floor. Konovalovas' teammate Perry is with him, and theres also Ruijgh, Terpstra and Degenkolb. Bodnar and Murakami are the last 2 to have made it through.
UniCredit though, have taken their foot off the gas. What could have been a perfect situation for them, is not. Their team leader Weening was of course one of the first two to crash. Ignatiev, Konovalovas and Rolland quickly make it back. Trilux meanwhile make it clear that they are here for just 1 rider. Sousa, Eichler and Wegmann (!) drop back to wait for Kessler.
UniCredit continue to wait for Weening while Ruijgh also takes to the front to slow it down. Already on their way back are Selander, Davis, Weening and Kozontchuk - all 4 evidently bounced off the floor to be back on their bikes so quickly.
So who does this favour? The breakaway! From a 20 second gap about to dissapear, to an unassailable 1 minutes lead! Capecchi will lead it out for the stage and leaders jersey
Davis and Weening make it back to the peloton. The other crash victims now just a minute behind.
Up front, Bar jumps early and Zabel tries to follow
He leads into the final kilometre as Ingels and Passeron launch their response
The peloton are still doing nothing, not even sprinting - evidently the decision has been made to neutralise themselves. The chasing group are sprinting like mad to get back on terms.
Up front for the finish, and Passeron leads the pursuit of Bar. Two Frenchmen riding for German teams!
He keeps closing and closing, but theres the finish line, and Jocelyn Bar takes the stage! Stallaert takes 3rd.
Eventually the peloton got going. Santos sprints to 9th ahead of Docker, Davis, Haussler, Napolitano and Degenkolb.
Despite the crash though. Those dropped on the first KoM - plus a few others such as Petrov and Brutt, who dropped back after the second - still could not close the gap. WWE of course, are the ones leading them. The crash at least means they only lose 2 minutes on the peloton, it was going to be so much more.
In amongst the crash though, there was one casualty. Race over for Paolo Longo Borghini
