Yauheni Hutarovich returned to his winning ways on the WorldTour level when he won today's opening stage of the Tour de Pologne but his win will mostly be remembered for the slippery and treacherous conditions. The Belarusian even hit the deck himself but managed to rejoin the peloton in time for the sprint.

When he first emerged on the professional scene, Yauheni Hutarovich was regarded as one of the biggest sprinting talents and his future looked bright when he won a stage of the 2010 Vuelta a Espana. Since then nothing has gone according to plan for the Belarusian whose progress has stalled dramatically.

He joined Ag2r for the 2013 season but the new surroundings didn’t change his fortunes. In fact, he failed to win a single race in his first year with the French team which is definitely not a pleasant situation for sprinter.

This year things have started to look brighter for Hutarovich as he won the GP de la Somme in late April but today he finally returned to the level where he belongs when he won the first stage of the Tour de Pologne to take his first WorldTour win since that Vuelta victory 4 years ago. The Belarusian showed his intentions all day as he was a constant presence near the front of the peloton on a day when rainy and very slippery conditions made many riders choose to stay further back to avoid the carnage.

Hutarovich was clearly overjoyed when he celebrated his win but just 15km from the line, it seemed that he was out of the running. At that point, he was one of several riders to hit the deck.

“The temperature at the start was very high at more than 35°C," he said. "Then the wind has really picked up and it started raining very hard. The conditions were tough with a very slippery and dangerous final circuit. I crashed once at the second crossing of the finish line, about fifteen kilometers from the finish, but I was able to remount quickly.

"In the last kilometers, I tried to maintain my position near the front of the pack and I was able to develop my power well. Then, I did what I know how to do, I started to sprint 250 meters from the finish line and I managed to hold on to the very end.

"Our good collective spirit was still present, my teammates helped me throughout the race, in particular to collect bottles. I’m very happy with this victory and tomorrow we will try to keep the yellow jersey.”