AG2R's Yuaheni Hutarovich has won the opening stage of the 71st Tour Of Poland.
A 226km flat stage from Gdañsk to Bydgoszcz on a warm day was the fare on offer for the opening stage of a World Tour race which attracted the top team and some riders hoping to make their team's Vuelta a Espana team.
The stage saw Matt Krizek of Cannondale, Vorobyev of Katusha, Jimmy Engoulvent of Europcar, Kamil Gradek of the Poand National Team & Maciej Paterski of CCC Polsat out front early and they were 13.50 ahead after 54kms.
With sixty five kilometres to go, the five up front were 10.09 ahead. Eleven kilometres later and Engoulvent beat Krizek to the three seconds for the intermeditate sprint.
Further down the road, there was a crash on a country road which caught out a number of riders.
Two kilometres and a tree which had been struck by lightening narrowed the road as hailstones came down.
The peloton was further delayed with forty eight kilometres to go, when a rider hit a branch which had been brought down by the storm and down went more riders.
Giant Shimano had a number of riders go down with 26kms left as the five out front in the pouring rain led witn a 3.02 margin.
The gap was down to 1.29 as the five out front as they started on three laps of a seven kilometre long finishing circuit.
Going into a corner with 20.5kms left and all five of the escapers went down.
Maciej Paterski of CCC Polsat stormed away with sixteen kilometres left and took the day's King Of The Mountain's climb. Krizek and Engoulvent joined him before the final lap which saw the trio with a nineteen second lead.
Paterski attacked again as the other escapers were swept up by the peloton with Belkin and BMC on the front.
Paterski was caught and at speeds of 56kmh, BMC got a rider on the front. There was a crash as the sprint wound up which did not affect AG2R's Yuaheni Hutarovich who won in 5.47.08 in a five man sprint, beating Maikin, Morei, Boivin, Haller, Maes, Vallee, Lander, Formolo and Gasparotto.