Rutkiewicz wins opening road stage

Marek Rutkiewicz from Mroz Active Jet won the first stage of Szlakiem Grodow Piastowskich race and took over the Gold Jersey of race leader. The Polish rider crossed the line ahead of Leopold Konig (PSK Whirlpool-Author) and Steffen Radochla (Nutrixxion Sparkasse).

"I attacked 7 kilometers from the finish line with Konig. I knew the last hill from the last editions of Szlakiem Grodow Piastowskich race and from Polish Championship," said Rutkiewicz. "I am a leader of general classification but it doesn't mean that now I'm the only leader of our team. We have a great group of riders with Jacek Morajko and Mariusz Witecki, who is defending his title from last year."

"It will be very hard to maintain this jersey. I saw Lukas Bodnar from CCC Polsat Polkowice climbing today and he looked really strong, like never before. If you take into consideration, that he is a great time trialist, he has good chances to win the race or at least be in the top 3."

The winner of this year's Tour du Maroc Dean Podgornik (BK Loborika) kicked off the day by winning an early intermediate sprint in Jawor, after 9 kilometers of racing. His efforts were quickly overtaken by the bunch, as the CCC Polsat Polkowice was setting up the pace. The next move was made by Robert Radosz from Aktio Group Mostostal Pulawy. He took advantage of the slow pace in the group and on the top of category 1 climb the gap stretched to 6 minutes.

Radosz, who won last year's edition of ProLiga classification, which consists of the most important Polish races, was able to win the second mountain prime of the day with 3 minute advantage.

At 93 kilometer mark two riders, Vadislav Borisov (Amore & Vita Conad) and Dimitri Claeys (Team NetAPP) launched a counter attack and at the bottom of Podgórki climb they joined Radosz. Few minutes later, on the 11% ascent, the Polish rider got dropped and the Russian-Belgian duo became the leading group. At that point they had one minute advantage over the field.

39 kilometers from the finish line the breakaway was over. The bunch crested the top of the climb all together and Marek Rutkiewicz (Mroz Active Jet) was the first one to get to the first category summit. On the descent a breakaway of GC contenders was formed. Rutkiewicz, Jacek Morajko (Mróz Active Jet), Tomasz Marczynski (CCC Polsat Polkowice), Hubert Schwab, Piergiorgio Camussa (both PCT Voralberg), Jaroslaw Dabrowski (Amore a Vita Conad), Radoslav Rogina (BK Loborika), Sergiej Fuchs (Nutrixion Sparkasse), Leopold Konig (Amore & Vita Conad), Bartosz Huzarski (Polish National Track Team) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Polish National Team) got away and built 30 second advantage. They were caught 7 kilometers to go but Rutkiewicz didn't give up and broke away again with Konig.

They gained only 10 seconds, but it turned out to be enough to get the win. Rutkiewicz, who knew the final hill very well, moved to the front and attacked giving no chance to Konig. He won the stage with the length of two bikes. Steffen Radochla (Nutrixion Sparkasse) was the fastest rider from the bunch, taking third.

Rutkiewicz took over both the gold and green jersey for the leader of general classification and points classification.