One year ago Gerald Ciolek won a stage and wore the leader's jersey in the biggest German stage race, Bayern Rundfahrt. This year he returns with an eye on more stage wins as he leads an MTN-Qhubeka roster that also includes former winner Linus Gerdemann.

Germany’s premier stage race, the Bayern Rundfahrt gets underway on Wednesday and for the second time, Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung will start the Bavarian Tour. Last years edition was a successful one for the African team as Gerald Ciolek won a stage and also wore the leaders yellow jersey. Once again, the tour will span over 5 stages, finishing on Sunday with the traditional stage ending in Nurnberg.

Last years race saw 4 sprint finishes and then the time trial. This year the time trial returns on stage 4 where Ignatas Konovalovas would hope to do well while sprints are expected on stages 1 and 5, Gerald Ciolek will have support from Andreas Stauff on these days. Stage 2 will be a summit finish, which will certainly interest Louis Meintjes and Linus Gerdemann. Stage 3 could end in another sprint or it could be one for the opportunists, both Jaco Venter and Jay Thomson have shown their strength in important breakaways this year already.

The Tour certainly has something for everyone and as outlined already, Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung  are well equipped to put up a good fight this week. A large number of the top riders will be present at the race though as many of the World Tour riders targeting the Tour de France this year use the Bayern Rundfahrt as part of their preparation. The quality field will ensure good hard racing each day and serve as another definite gauge in the team's progress.

"Our team is focused on a very important period of the year now with some more incredible highlights," Directeur Sportif Jens Zemke said. "The Bayern Rundfahrt is a HC category tour and we have nice memories of last years edition, where Gerald won a stage and rode in the leaders jersey. Linus is a former winner of this race and his moral is pretty high. Also, Louis will be back after a break and he will love the mountains of Bavaria.

"The winner of this race must be an incredible all-rounder. He has to be a good climber, good in time trials and clever enough to always stay in front when the action starts, plus he needs a good team.

"I looked over the startlist and there are around 50 riders which are going to the Tour de France. That means the Bayern Tour has an incredibley high valued bunch of riders. A stage win would be fantastic here and a top ten GC is possible."