Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) finally opened his 2012 account, after a string of near-misses, in the opening stage of the Bayern-Rundfahrt between Traunstein and Penzberg. The 38-year-old, who was disappointed to miss out on this year’s Giro d’Italia, was fastest to the line at the end of the 216km stage, ahead of Allan Davis (Orica-GreenEdge) and Yahueni Hutarovich (FDJ-BigMat).
"Obviously I'm very happy,” said Petacchi. I have finally taken my victory, after I almost reached it in Turkey and in Norway.
“Everything was perfect today,” he explained, “the team worked hard to chase the breakaway, after the attackers had a maximum advantage of 14 minutes. Then I managed the climb of Oberaudorf without problems, a summit of 1000 metres, at 100 km to go. In the two laps of the final circuit, the team led the bunch before[Davide] Cimolai and [Danilo] Hondo prepared my sprint".
The stage was characterised by an early attack from David Boucher (FDJ-BigMat), who was joined after few kilometres by Alexander Schmitt (Nutrixxion-Abus), Jasha Sütterlin (Thüringer Energie) and Steffen Radochia (NSP-Ghost). The four riders managed to open up a lead of more than 13 minutes over the peloton, but were gradually reeled in and snapped up with 40km to go.
This was a little too early to have closed the race down however, leaving the peloton open to counterattacks, and sure enough Björn Thurau (Europcar), Michael Schwarzmann (NetApp) and Markus Fothen (NSP-Ghost) attacked shortly afterwards. The new three-rider group was only able to get a minute clear however, before it was pulled back by the sprinters teams with three kilometres to go.
Lampre-ISD led Petacchi into the finish and the Ale-Jet fired his afterburners for the first time this season; time bonuses on the line gave the Italian the first yellow jersey of the race.
Result stage 1
1. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-ISD
2. Allan Davis (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
3. Yahueni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ-BigMat
4. John Degenkolb (Ger) Argos-Shimano
5. Alexander Porsev (Rus) Katusha Team
6. Andreas Stauff (Ger) Team Eddy Merckx-Indeland
7. Tony Gallopin (Fra) RadioShack-Nissan
8. Rafaâ Chtioui (Tun) Team Europcar
9. Blaz Jarc (Slo) Team NetApp
10. Baden Cooke (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
Standings after stage 1
1. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-ISD
2. Allan Davis (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge @ 4s
3. David Boucher (Fra) FDJ-BigMat
4. Yahueni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ-BigMat @ 6s
5. Alexander Schmitt (Ger) Nutrixxion-Abus @ 7s
6. Marcus Fothen (Ger) Team NSP-Ghost
7. Steffen Radochla (Ger) Team NSP-Ghost @ 8s
8. Michael Schwarzmann (Ger) Team NetApp
9. Björn Thurau (Ger) Team Europcar @ 9s
10. Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Thüringer Energie