Klöden solid in Bayern-Rundfahrt opener

The T-Mobile team enjoyed a solid start to the five-day Bayern-Rundfahrt, which began yesterday in Kempten, Germany, and signaled a return to racing for a number of the team's riders.

On the climb of the Jungholz, a 30-man lead group formed that contained five T-Mobile riders including Andreas Klöden, and reached a maximum eight-minutes lead before the break was brought back by the sprinters' teams, with the stage won by Jan Svorada (eD'system - ZVVZ).

"The team was very active in today's stage, just as we set out to be," said T-Mobile directeur sportif Frans van Looy on the team's website, t-mobile-team.com. "Steffen Wesemann and Andreas Klöden rode very actively in a 30-man break. Unfortunately, the break was too big to work and they were reeled in."

Said Klöden: "I am using this race for training under race conditions. And the opener went well: I was able to stay with the pace in the mountains. My form is coming along."

Steffen Wesemann is another of the team's riders who is using the race to get back into the swing of things, who naturally said after the stage: ""After four weeks out of competition, a stage like that takes its toll. I'll take things day by day and then suss out if there is a high GC place in it for me."