The relatively short and flat opening stage around Warsaw ended up in a bunch sprint after the day's escape group was caught, with Kittel taking the victory ahead of Australian Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) in second and Italian Niccolo Bonifazio (Lampre-Merida) in third.
Thanks to his time bonus, Kittel leads the race by six seconds over Ewan and 10 seconds over Bonifazio.
Kittel has suffered from lingering illness throughout the 2015 season, and his Poland victory is his first since the People's Choice Classic back in January. He will be seeking more stage wins in the coming few stages of the race, and hoping to set up a successful end to what has been a torrid season so far.
The WorldTour-level Tour of Poland runs from Sunday, August 2, to Saturday, August 8, and features six road stages and a final individual time trial. The race continues on Monday with 146km stage two from Częstochowa to Dąbrowa Górnicza.
Home rider Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) won the race last year, and ranks as one of the leading favourites alongside World Champion and compatriot Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep).
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