Archie Ryan set for first chance in Germany after tricky prologue start | Video

Archie Ryan didn't much like the opening stage road bike TT at Deutschland Tour today when the big powerful riders excelled over the short distance (Photo: Tomasz Smietana)

Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost) has battled through the opening stage today at Lidl Deutschland Tour (2.Pro), completing an unremarkable effort on roads not suited to the lightweight climber from Co Wicklow.

However, having endured terrain - and a stage distance - more suited to the sprinters than climbers, Ryan may get his chance as early as tomorrow, when the roads in Germany will be a bit lumpier.

He was one of the most aggressive riders at last week's Tour de Pologne and will be looking to impress again over coming days after getting today's TT, ridden on road bikes, out of the way.

On today's pan flat 2.9km test in Schweinfurt, Ryan came home into 80th place, some 16 seconds down on TT winner - pursuiter and sprinter - Jonathan Milan (Lidl Trek). The Italian led home a team 1-2 as the other powerhouse in his team's line-up, Mads Pedersen, took 2nd place just seven tenths of a second down.

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Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) completed the stage podium placings, at 1.7 seconds, with Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) in 4th, at 2.9 seconds. Swiss TT rider Stefan Bissegger proved best of Ryan's EF Education-EasyPost team, in 5th place at 3.5 seconds.

While the next four stages in Germany do not exactly involve a feast of hard climbing that riders like Ryan might get their teeth stuck into, there are some short and sharp ascents that might just prove hard enough to make the difference.

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Tomorrow's opening road stage takes the riders some 176.3km from Schweinfurt to Heilbronn, with two small categorised climbs to be contested. However, the second one of those is quite close to the finish; the Jagerhaus, at 1.5km averaging 7.8 per cent.

It is crested 12km from the finish and is followed by a very short descent, before the road kicks up a little again, followed by a rapid 8km section of descending and flat to the finish.

If Ryan is in the kind of form he showed in Poland last week, that last section of grippy road may prove a springboard for him and some of the others in the field to distance those riders who were to the fore in the TT today.

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