The professionals stayed in the comfort of their hotel rooms as Rund um Köln got cancelled, but further north the racing was on. Cottbus-Görlitz-Cottbus was held, despite the conditions being pretty bad, too. The directeur sportif of Thüringer Energie Team, Jens Lang, explained that "The conditions were borderline. Partially, there was snow slush on the road." He joked that "Fortunately, we come from a winter sports country and regularly go skiing in our training camps," making reference to Thüringen as the home of many high-level cross-country skiers, biathletes and ski-jumpers.
But Thüringer Energie Team was happy overall, as they got off to a good start into the racing season. The defending Bundesliga champion won the teams classification for the day and took over the lead again in the standings. The race, which was shortened from 190 to 140 kilometres due to the ice and snow, was dominated by an 11-man breakaway. It developed quickly after the start and rode ahead of the peloton with a maximum advantage of over four minutes. By the end the field came close, but was still 29 seconds back at the finish.
