Team Sky’s runner-up Ben Swift was upbeat after his narrow loss to Alex Rasmussen yesterday.

Swift commented on Radsport-News: “It would have been nice to win. The team did a really good job today [yesterday], they pulled all day; it was just a really hard day with the weather and the wind. I’m happy to get second, as I’ve come back from injury.”

“This is only my second race of the season really, so I’m happy with second, but we’ll try to win a stage. We’ve got a strong team. We’ve won the GC for the last two years, and we have a former winner in Geraint Thomas, so we want to try to win again.”

Gerald Ciolek was the best German in fourth place: “That was a very hard day for all the riders. In these conditions it’s not much fun to race. In the last 100 metres I was missing a bit of strength. I had a bad cold up until last weekend but actually it went pretty well for me and I am confident for the upcoming days. The team is good and we are all motivated for the next stages.”

Grischa Janorschke will wear the mountain jersey on today’s stage. To the race website, he said: “It rained the whole day, but in the front group we stayed relatively warm. In the final I tried to stay away alone, but our advantage wasn’t big enough on the final circuit.”

“It’s a nice compensation to get the mountain jersey. That is very satisfying for me as a Bavarian after a terrible 2012 season when I had to watch the race from the sidelines. It wasn’t even my plan to go into the break today; but I tried and then we went off. So it was meant to be.”

The race continues today with a 194,5 km stage from Mühldorf am Inn to Viechtach that will be crucial for the general classification, with the first category climb to Sankt Englmar after 120 km and a taxing final.