Deutschland Tour 1 : Saarbruecken

Robert Förster from Gerolsteiner has won the first stage of his own country's tour. He managed to take the victory in the sprint where he took the wheel of Napolitano and then jumped over him and Erik Zabel.

The stage was marked by a long escape with 3 riders, Maarten den Bakker, Matej Mugerli and Philipp Ludescher but they couldn't they reached the finish first but they still had to do another two town laps so the teams with a sprinter took them back.

For Euskaltel there was a great eight place for Aitor Galdos and a bit disappointing 23th place for Koldo Fernandez. They should learn to get in front when it's sprint-time, they always have to ride very fast to get in the top 10, they should get better results if they just got in front of the headgroup. Everybody finished in the first group.

Stage Result
1 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 4.24.16 (41.708 km/h)
2 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Lampre-Fondital ST
3 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram ST
...
8. Aitor Galdos ST
23. Koldo Fernandez ST
39. Alan Perez ST
60. Juan Jose Oroz ST
143. Dionisio Galparsoro ST
163. Unai Uribarri ST
176. Anton Luengo ST

General Rank
1 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 4.24.06
2 Maarten Den Bakker (Ned) Skil-Shimano +0.02
3 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Lampre-Fondital +0.04
...
13. Aitor Galdos +0:10
28. Koldo Fernandez +0:10
44. Alan Perez +0:10
64. Juan Jose Oroz +0:10
142. Dionisio Galparsoro +0:10
160. Jon Bru +0:10
162. Unai Uribarri +0:10
175. Anton Luengo +0:10