Bayern-Rundfahrt: The Swiss Mathias Frank gave the IAM team another day's victory after Heinrich Haussler's opening win on the second stage. He also takes over the yellow jersey from the overall leader.
From Freilassing, the drivers had to cover almost 164 kilometers up to the Winklmoosalm in Reit im Winkl. The stage profile promised an exciting battle between the favorites for overall victory, especially towards the end. So it's no wonder that their teammates stretched themselves to the front of the field to keep the breakaways of the day around Irishman Sam Bennett (NetApp-Endura) and Canadian Christian Meier (Orica GreenEdge) on a short leash.
This was successful. Even before the climb up to the Winklmoosalm, the escapees were caught. Team FDJ.fr set a high pace, but it wasn't their captain Thibaut Pinot who secured the day's win. In fact, Frank attacked just under two kilometers from the finish and took a lead of around 25 seconds into the last kilometer. At the finish he had enough time to celebrate his victory. Second was Pinot, third was Leopold König from the Czech Republic from the NetApp-Endura team.
