Gerdemann leads Tirreno-Adriatico

Germany's Linus Gerdemann took the victory and the overall lead after the 148 kilometre first stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico.

TheMilram rider finished ahead of Spaniard Pablo Lastras of Caissed'Epargne and Denmark's Matti Breschel to take his second win of the2010 season.

The stage, from Livorno on the west coast toRosignano Solvay, which was affected by bitterly cold temperatures andrain, saw pre-race favourites Mark Cavendish and local hope AlessandroPetacchi finish well behind the leaders.

Gerdemann attacked inthe final kilometre along with second-place finisher Pablo Lastras(Caisse d'Epargne), Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank) and fourth-placed LucaPaolini (Acqua & Sapone)

"An outstanding finale from ourwhole team," said Milram director sportif Christian Henn. "We continuedto attack at the decisive moment, which made our chance for the victorypossible.

"Linus [Gerdemann] was very attentive and won thestage for us very cleverly. All in all, it was a very hard andstrenuous day for everyone in the field. The temperatures were onlybetween three and six degrees, it rained at the start and the streetswere wet the whole way."

Ukranian Dimitri Grabovskyy (ISD-Neri) spent the day out front after a solo break but was caught with only 15 km to go.

Afterthe catch a series of attacks followed, first fom Pabol Urtasun(Euskaltel), then Milram's Fabian Wegmann but they were quickly caughtbefore Gerdemann launched his attack to win the stage.

Australia'sCadel Evans, riding for Team BMC, finished the stage safely and isplaced 5th, 9 seconds behind race leader Gerdemann, while ISD-Neri'sSimon Clarke completed the stage in the top ten.

The Tirreno-Adriatico continues in Montecatini Terme with the 165-kilometer second stage.

Stage 1: Livorno - Rosignano Solvay 148km

1Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram 3:36:15, 2 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa)Caisse d'Epargne, 3 Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank, 4 Luca Paolini(Ita) Acqua & Sapone, 5 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Francaise DesJeux, 6 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne, 7 Tyler Farrar(USA) Garmin - Transitions, 8 Marco Bandiera (Ita) Team Katusha, 9Simon Clarke (Aus) ISD - Neri, 10 Francesco Ginanni (Ita) AndroniGiocattoli

General classification:

1 Linus Gerdemann(Ger) Team Milram 3:36:05, 2 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caissed'Epargne 0:00:04, 3 Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:06, 4Fabian Wegmann (Ger) Team Milram 0:00:08, 5 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMCRacing Team 0:00:09, 6 Luca Paolini (Ita) Acqua & Sapone 0:00:10, 7Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Francaise Des Jeux, 8 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil(Spa) Caisse d'Epargne, 9 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Transitions, 10Marco Bandiera (Ita) Team Katusha.