Farrar finishes fastest in Hamburg

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Tyler Farrar took the biggest win of his career at the Vattenfall Cyclassics on Saturday. After being close to a win on so many occasions this season, the American won the race with a powerful sprint finish in the centre of Hamburg, Germany. Garmin-Slipstream's Farrar finished ahead of Saxo Bank's Matti Breschel and German Gerald Ciolek (Milram) at the end of the 216km race.

"This season has gone very well for me, although the really big success didn't come until now," the 25-year-old winner said. "After the many second places in the Giro and the Tour, it is great to finally stand on top of the podium."

"The team rode together, at the front, all day. We had some bad luck with crashes, but the boys really came through today," said Farrar.  "It's nice to win a big one..."

It was only his third stage win of the year. He had previously won stages at Tirreno-Adriatico and the Delta Tour Zeeland, where he also took the overall title after winning the time trial. In the Tour de France, he finished second or third during four stages.

"He's a very strong rider - he has his first season with Grand Tour experience, and now he's reaping the benefit of that's experience," said Farrar's team manager Jonathan Vaughters.

"I think it shows that Tyler is a race winner. He didn't get frustrated by so many second places, he re-focused and worked hard, and now he'll start winning a lot more," predicted Vaughters.

Ciolek, who placed third in this race two years ago, was pleased with his effort. "That is a very good success for our Team Milram," he said. "On one hand, of course, there were two riders faster than me. But on the other hand, it not really a loss. That was my only my second race since the Tour de France. At times it was very difficult for me to go with the high tempo in the finale."

Two riders got away on an early break, Sergio de Lis of Team Euskaltel and Yuriy Kirvtsov of AG2R. They built up a lead of around nine minutes, but were finally caught again with some 46km to go.

Shortly after the peloton caught the two, three laps of the closing circuit remained. The loop included a climb up the Waseberg, a short climb which topped out at over 16 percent. Columbia more or less held things together much of the way, as there were a number of failed attempts by riders to gain a decisive advantage over the peloton inside the final 30km.

Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) appeared to be the most determined to pull away from the field. He and Rabobank's Nick Nuyens held a short-lived advantage over the main field before they were drawn back in with 25km remaining.

On the final ascent of the Waseberg, with 16km to go, Gilbert attacked again. This time he took with him Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) and Manuele Mori (Lampre-NGC) and former Cyclassics winner Stuart O'Grady (Saxo Bank). The four worked hard to pull away from the peloton but as the race entered the wide streets of Hamburg, the group was brought back after just a few kilometres of freedom.

A nasty crash in a construction zone in the last two kilometers brought down a handful of riders.

Once the quartet were back in the field, the teams of the sprinters assumed control of the front of the bunch. As the race rolled swiftly beneath the kilometre-to-go marker, no one team had yet established full control of the front of the peloton, but it was the orange, blue and white of the Garmin lead-out that held the central position.

Farrar timed his run to perfection, launching his sprint and sliding up the centre of the finishing straight to claim victory as his rivals dived for the line around him.

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