'Mission accomplished' for Team Gerolsteiner in stage one of the Deutschland Tour today: "The guys carried out what we had planned," said team director Hans-Michael Holczer. "We wanted to make life hard for the sprinters in the finale - and that's what we did. Everybody's in great shape, so the next few days will be exciting."
Even though the men from the mineral water team could not prevent a bunch sprint finish, two attacks put their mark on the final racing kilometres to Bielefeld. First, it was Stefan Schumacher who tried to get away on a small climb. "The short ascent with seven kilometres to go was unfortunately too short to make a difference," he said. "But it was worth a try!"
