On paper Gerald Ciolek is one of the best sprinters in the Tour of Denmark but the German failed to mix it up with the best in the opening sprint. Being isolated in the finale, he lacked the power on the tough finishing circuit while his teammates struggled with the return to competition after a mid-season break.

The opening stage of the Post Danmark Rundt – Tour of Denmark saw the young Magnus Cort (Cult Energy Vital Water) take the victory in the expected bunch sprint. Cort was able to pip Jasper De Buyst (Topsport Vlaanderen) and Valerio Agnoli (Astana) to the line, also ensuring he claimed the races first yellow jersey. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had Gerald Ciolek cross the line in 25th position to be the highest placed rider on the stage.

The 157km stage always looked like it favoured the sprinters, particularly with 3 laps of a 6.2km circuit concluding the stage. This did not deter 6 riders from trying their luck in a long distance escape. Mikkel Mortensen (Riwal Platform), John Murphy (United Healthcare), Nico Sijmens (Wanty), Christopher Williams (Team Novo Nordisk), Rasmus Quaade (Trefor – Blue Water) and Martin Toft Madsen (Team Post Denmark) would spend just over 100km’s in the lead before being reeled in.

Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had a rather uneventful stage as the riders looked to find their racing legs after a 6-week mid-season break that also included a tough 2 weeks at an altitude training camp. The run into the finish was fast and furious though and the peloton proceeded to splinter all over the road. Multiple groups would form and Ciolek was the sole MTN-Qhubeka rider to finish in the leading group. The team will now focus their attention on slowly building their racing form and possibly picking up a result in the stages to come.

"Today was the first race after quite a long break for most of the guys and a few are coming straight from an altitude camp," Andreas Stauff said. "The stage started pretty fast with a tailwind and a group got away around 30km mark. Tinkoff Saxo controlled it straight away and so we went on to the finish at good speed.

"We wanted to go for the sprint today but the circuit was a really tough one. It was more difficult than we expected so our plan didn’t really work out. Most of the team is going to the Vuelta and so they busy building up for it. The rest of us want to support those guys as best we can and now look forward to the next stages which should suit us better to get a good result."

"6 riders got away after 20km’s and then Lotto and Tinkoff kept the gap under control," Director Sportif Jens Zemke said. "They closed the gap with 15km to go and the bunch broke into several parts during the finishing circuit. Only Gerald was able to stay up in the front group of 40 odd riders, but he was not able to sprint anymore. We need a couple of days to recover from our high altitude camp which we used for Vuelta preparation."