Ciolek takes first win of the year

Gerald Ciolek of Team Milram took his first win of the 2010 season, winning the mass sprint in the Queen Stage of the Bayern-Rundfahrt. After three ranked climbs on a stage with few flat metres, the 23-year-old won the sprint of a 39 man group, beating Grega Bole (Lampre) and Steve Houanard (Skil Shimano).

The leader's jersey returned to stage 1 winner Ruben Perez Moreno of Euskaltel, as Leigh Howard, who won the jersey Thursday, was dropped on the climbs. Thanks to bonus seconds, Ciolek moved into second place, with the same time as Moreno. Bole is third, one second down.

Two riders got away early on a day which saw heavy rain and strong winds batter the riders. Jan Barta (Team NetApp) and Delio Fernandez Cruz (Xacobeo) got away early and weren't caught again until the final ranked climb of the day, with some 30km to go.

Milram controlled the field after that, not letting anyone get off the front of the ever shrinking group. The German ProTour team set Ciolek up perfectly. As directeur sportif and former rider Ralf Grabsch said, "Christian Knees and Niki Terpstra practically carried Gerald to the finish line."

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