Maxime Bouet (Ag2r) won the opening road stage of the Giro del Trentino in Italy on Tuesday morning.
Bouet had been part of an eight-rider escape group that managed to keep the bunch at bay over the short 128-kilometre morning road stage.
Josef Cerny (CCC Polsat) placed second on the stage at two seconds, with Michael Rodriguez (Colombia) in third at four seconds.
The peloton eventually arrived just under seven minutes behind Bouet - an advantage that will be tough to overhaul.
The riders now face a 14-1-kilometre team time trial this afternoon. The UCI 2.HC-ranked race concludes on Friday with a testing mountain-top finish.
Result
Giro del Trentino 2013, stage 1a: Lienz to Lienz, 128.5km
1. Maxime Bouet (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale
2. Josef Cerny (Cze) CCC Polsat at 2 secs
3. Michael Rodriguez (Col) Colombia at 4 secs
4. Nicola Dal Santo (Ita) Flaminia Fondriest at 45 secs
5. Enzo Moyano (Arg) Caja Rural
6. Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Rusvelo at same time
7. Jacques Janse van Rensburg (RSA) MTN Qhubeka at 47 secs
8. Gang Xu (Chn) Champion System at 1-17
9. Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox at 6-57
10. Leonardo Duque (Col) Colombia at same time
Overall classification after stage 1a
1. Maxime Bouet (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale
Related links
Giro del Trentino 2013 preview
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