Ilan van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep) captured the stage 1 victory of the Deutschland Tour from a late breakaway and moved into the GC lead in the process.
Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates) finished second and Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) third as three other riders followed in the chase three seconds later and a reduced peloton trailed 10 seconds back.
Van Wilder led the front trio across the final climb of the punch Ellerberg with 6.7km to go to take his first professional win and kept the leader’s red jersey with QuickStep, worn by prologue winner Ethan Vernon, who dropped to fourth overall. Großschartner moved to second on GC, 9 seconds back, while Sivakov was another second back in third.
The 23-year-old Belgian from Soudal-QuickStep took the initiative on the second and final pass of the Ellerberg with Sivakov on his back wheel. They were followed by Großschartner, and the trio opened a small gap. In full-on chase mode with 3km to go were Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Dylan Teuns (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Kevin Vermaerke (Team dsm-firmenich), trying to make up nine seconds to the leading trio, but the podium had been decided.
“I’m super happy. Early this year, I was closing at Algarve, but I celebrated a bit too early. I was beaten at the line, so it was a big disappointment. Now I didn’t make this mistake, and I did a really good sprint,” Van Wilder said at the finish, noting he was second in a sprint on stage 2 of Volta ao Algarve earlier this year. “I can’t really put into words what it means to win for the first time as a pro and to do this in the jersey of Soudal-QuickStep.
“It was quite a high pace for the last 40k. A lot of teams tried to drop the sprinters and were successful. And then, on the final climb, a lot of guys attacked. I just followed the moves a bit. Then really, Sivakov dropped the hammer, and I joined him in the attack. A little bit later, Großschartner also joined, and we were like three engines going full gas, not skipping turns. We could hold it to the line. Chapeau to the other guys.”
Thursday’s road stage began in St. Wendel and headed through the mountainous north region of the Saarland to Merzig, with the second half of the 179km characterised by a series of short but steep ramps that made up most of the 2,500 metres of climbing, four of the seven categorised. Once in Merzig, the peloton completed two laps that included the steep ascent to the Kreuzberg Chapel before a downhill approach to the finish line.
The breakaway formed in the opening 10km, a group of six containing one Belgian rider, Ham Vanhoucke (Lotto Dstny) and five Germans - Silas Köch (Saris Rouvy Sauerland Team), Oliver Mattheis and Jasper Levi Pahlke of Bike Aid, Albert Gathemann (P&S Benotti) and Vincent John (Rad-Net Osswald). The group stretched their lead to just over five minutes with 108km to go.
Across the first categorised climb, the 3.8km Waldhölzbach, Pahlke dropped away as Vanhoucke accelerated for the 3 points on offer.
Crossing the Sarn River with just under 50km to go, Vanhoucke remained at the front with John and Mattheis as they passed over the 2.4km Orscholz climb, with an average of 7.8% gradient. The other companions from the breakaway were headed backwards in a return to the peloton, now 2:35 from the leaders.
Across the next 9km, the remnants of the breakaway were all gone, and it was a strung out peloton headed to the final circuits. Israel-Premier Tech led the peloton, with Soudal-QuickStep next in line protecting the red jersey of Vernon.
All riders were together as they passed the finish line for the first time, just under 20km to go, and made the tight left-hand turn to ascend the Ellerberg the first time, 1.8km with a 6.7% gradient at the top. Riders separated from the reduced peloton included Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates), Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) and Luke Rowe (Ineos Grenadiers).
With 14km to go, Marco Haller (Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked on the descent back to town, with a reaction from Harry Sweeny (Lotto Dstny) and the rest of the lead group closing down the acceleration and more sprinters falling off the back.
Back through Merzig for the final circuit for the final 9.6km, Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) led the group as the bell rang. On the final pass of the Ellerberg, Movistar and TotalEnergies set the pace, but then Van Wilder went to work with Großschartner and Sivakov and held off all challengers.
Results
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