Bradley Wiggins makes subdued return to racing at Tour de Pologne as Diego Ulissi wins

Bradley Wiggins was dropped early on the climb to Madonna di Campiglio

Wiggins, riding competitively for the first time since abandoning the Giro d'Italia through illness in May, was dropped early on the final climb to the Italian ski resort of Madonna di Campiglio and eventually crossed the line 9min 13sec down.

Giro winner Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) also fell out of contention on the lower slopes of the 11km ascent as the pair began working their way back to peak condition ahead of the World Championships in Florence in September.

Ulissi had no such fitness concerns, entering the final 2km in the front group and then out-sprinting his rivals on the short flat to the finish line.

The peloton had earlier been split apart at the start of category-one ascent after Cannondale upped the pace on the front and caused hordes of riders to be dropped.

Weening falls short

With the last of the day's breakaway riders quickly swept up, Pieter Weening (Vacansoleil-DCM) attacked out of the front group 7km from home and briefly led solo, but he was later caught by a counter from Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Eros Capecchi (Movistar).

Although the trio held a small gap over the summit of the climb, they were unable to maintain the lead on the 2.5km run to the finish line and a select front group soon reformed.

Weening mounted one last bid for glory just over 1km out, but it was a futile attack and the chasing pack swallowed him up for the second time 500m from the line to set up a reduced-bunch sprint.

Jon Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) launched his burst too early and quickly faded, leaving Ulissi free to beat second-placed Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) by two bike lengths after timing his sprint to perfection.

Due to time bonuses, the Italian now leads the race overall, with Sorensen second and Atapuma third, four seconds back.

Wiggins and Nibali crossed the line together and are now likely to treat the seven-stage race solely as a training exercise.

Stage one result

1 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida
2 Darwin Atapuma (Col) Colombia, same time
3 Rafal Majka (Pol) Saxo-Tinkoff, st
4 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Movistar, st
5 Ivan Basso (Ita) Cannondale, st
6 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st
7 Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi, st
8 Alex Howes (USA) Garmin-Sharp, st
9 Ben Hermans (Bel) RadioShack-Leopard, st
10 Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica-GreenEdge, st
Selected others
58 Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky, +9:13
60 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, st

General classification

1 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida
2 Chris Anker Sorensen (Den) Saxo-Tinkoff, same time
3 Darwin Atapuma (Col) Colombia, +4secs
4 Rafal Majka (Pol) Saxo-Tinkoff, +6
5 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Movistar, st
6 Ivan Basso (Ita) Cannondale, st
7 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st
8 Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi, st
9 Alex Howes (USA) Garmin-Sharp, st
10 Ben Hermans (Bel) RadioShack-Leopard, st