Assan Bazayev gave his Astana team a boost after taking the first stage of the Tour of Germany. The Kazakh rider outsprinted Italian Danilo Napolitano and local favourite Erik Zabel on the finish line to claim his first professional victory.
The Astana team were not allowed to take part in the Tour de France after several of their proposed line-up were implicated in a doping scandal.
Russian Vladimir Gusev, who won the prologue, retains the overall lead.
Astana replaced Liberty Seguros as sponsors of Bazayev's team after manager Manolo Saiz was involved in a major doping scandal in May.
The team were not allowed to take part in the Tour and are making their return to competition this week.
The 198km stage, from Dusseldorf to Bielefeld, saw Antton Luengo and Andreas Matzbacher lead for most of the trip but they were caught just 18km from home in driving rain.
Thursday's second stage takes the bunch from Minden to Gosla over 182 km.
Tour of Germany stage one results:
1. Assan Bazayev (Kazakhstan / Astana ) 4:43:06"
2. Danilo Napolitano (Italy / Lampre ) ST
3. Erik Zabel (Germany / Milram )
4. Andre Greipel (Germany / T-Mobile )
5. Alexandre Usov (Belarus / AG2R )
6. Claudio Corioni (Italy / Lampre )
7. Vicente Reynes (Spain / Caisse d'Epargne )
8. Manuele Mori (Italy / Saunier Duval )
9. Roy Sentjens (Belgium / Rabobank )
10. Josep Jufre (Spain / Davitamon - Lotto )
Overall standings:
1. Vladimir Gusev (Rus / Discovery Channel ) 4hr 49min 47sec
2. Linus Gerdemann (Ger) at 1sec
3. Sebastian Lang (Ger) 2
4. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) 5
5. Alexei Markov (Rus) 9
6. Frederic Finot (Fra) 9
7. Sebastien Rosseler (Bel) 9
8. Inigo Cuesta (Sp) 10
9. Gerald Ciolek (Ger) 10
10. Tomas Vaitkus (Lit) 10
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