Patrik Sinkewitz (Meridiana Kamen) confirmed his good condition by winning the first stage of the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda. In a tough uphill finish, the German emerged as the strongest when he rode away from everyone on the final climb of the finish and relegated Ivan Rovny (Rusvelo) and Davide Rebellin (CCC) to the minor placings.

During the month of August, Patrik Sinkewitz has repeatedly shown that he is one of the strongest climbers on the Italian racing scene but so far, the race finishes have been too easy for him to capitalize on his good form. Today, he finally got his win when he won the first stage of the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda.

The stage finished with a hard climb to the finish and that suited Sinkewitz perfectly. The German kept his calm in the peloton for most of the day before finally launching his move in the race finale. No one was able to keep up with the Meridiana Kamen rider who finished 16 seconds ahead of a small group which was led home by Ivan Rovny and Davide Rebellin.

The 168,4km stage was mostly flat as it started with 9 laps on a completely flat 11,8km circuit. However, the stage had a nasty sting in its tail as it finished with a category 2 climb.

The stage was off to a really fast start and it took a long time for the early break to be established. 15 riders finally got clear and they stayed away for most of the stage.

The break split up on the final climb and 5 riders were the last survivors from the early move. However, they were caught by a select group of favourites when 5km still remained.

Sinkewitz launched his offensive and no one was able to respond. He soloed across the line to take the biggest win of his season.

With the win, Sinkewitz is of course also the first leader of the race. He takes his leader's jersey into tomorrow's 153,3km queen stage that once again has a very flat beginning but end with a very tough category 1 climb.

Result:

1. Patrik Sinkewitz

2. Ivan Rovny +0.16

3. Davide Rebellin

4. Sergey Firsanov

5. Mauro Finetto

6. Radoslav Rogina

7. Manuel Francesco Bongiorno

8. Tomasz Nose +0.20

9. Sergio Pardilla +0.21

10. Pattrick Facchini

More results to come