Tour of Poland was launched today with a 226 kilometer long and rather flat stretch from Gdansk in the North of Poland and going south to Bydgoszcz where three laps on a final circuit covering 7.2 kilometers concluded the stage, which was marred my hailstorms.

Five riders were on the move from the gun and very quickly built up a solid lead of almost 15 minutes before the peloton started dragging them back. Due to the extreme weather conditions, Tinkoff-Saxo went to the front of the pack moving through the hail while passing fallen trees on the road to secure Rafal Majka a prober and secure spot in the pack on a day where a lot of riders suffered from road rash.

During the three final laps, Tinkoff-Saxo brought down the gap by keeping the pace up on the treacherous surface and as all five escapees went down in a slippery corner, they were soon in sight. And even though Maciej Paterski (CCC Polsat) dug deep to keep the peloton behind in a late solo attacj from the front group, it was doomed.

In the chaotic bunch sprint, Yauheni Hutarovich (Ag2R) was the faster rider. Tinkoff-Saxo leader, Rafal Majka finished 24th in the pack.

“It was a wet and nasty day for the riders and the hailstorm created some serially dangerous situations on the road in terms of falling branches and twigs from the trees and we even had to go around a tree that obstructed the road. However, we managed to get Rafal safely through the storm and in between the first 30 riders across the finish line. That’s the goal we have during the next three stages very similar to this initial one,” DS Tristan Hoffman states.