Viviani wins EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg

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Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) repeated his victory in the EuroEyes Cyclassics race in Hamburg, winning the sprint of a reduced peloton. Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) jumped first in the closing sprint, but had to settle for second, with Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) third.

The race was marked by a long breakaway by five riders, who were caught with only 18km left on the day. Various attacks followed, but the sprinters’ teams kept control of the situation and brought them all back. A crash near the front of the field in the final 2km made the already reduced peloton even smaller, but with many top sprinters still in the front to contest for the win.

How it unfolded

Shortly after the start in Hamburg, a group of five formed. Ivan Cortina (Bahrain Merida), Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Winner Anacona (Movistar), Kamil Gradek (CCC) and Evgeny Shaluna (Gazprom-RusVelo) built up a lead of up to three minutes on the mostly flat course.

Katusha-Alpecin suffered an early loss, with Jenthe Bierman having to leave the race after a crash. He was taken to the team doctor, apparently to get stitches for facial lacerations.

The field kept the break group under strict control, with the gap dropping to two minutes at the feed zone, and then slowly coming down after that. With 60 km to go, Nils Politt (Katusha) and a rider from Bahrain Merida jumped from the field to give chase. They never got far from the peloton but helped to bing the gap down to 30 seconds, before being caught. That sent the gap back up to a minute, before Politt tried again in a solo. He couldn’t stay away though.

The five leaders crossed the finish line for the first time 1:33 ahead of the field. The gap came down again on this closing circuit course, with the sprinters’ teams determined to have their way at the end. With 18km to go, the five leaders had been roped in.

Three riders got away on the final climb of the Waseberg, only 15km from the finish line. Another seven riders gave chase, and soon caught them. The group, which included Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Merida), Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) and BMC’s Dylan Theuns and Jurgen Roelandts, fought hard to stay away from the greatly reduced peloton, down to about 50 riders, but the last of the lead group were caught with 4.4km to go.

A crash with 2km to go took down three riders, including German champion Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe). This left only a small group of some 30 riders to challenge for the win. Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) opened the sprint, but Viviani easily powered his way past the Frenchman for his second consecutive win in Hamburg.

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