“I’m incredibly proud”
Cycling coup: German wins traditional race
May 1, 2026 – 6:05 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The German champion prevailed in the Eschborn-Frankfurt cycling classic. This also ends a long-standing dry spell.
Georg Zimmermann caused a big surprise and won the 63rd edition of the Eschborn-Frankfurt cycling classic in the final sprint. The German champion from Team Lotto Intermarché crossed the finish line in front of the Alte Oper in Frankfurt first after 211 demanding kilometers; the Brits Thomas Pidcock (Great Britain/Pinarello) and Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike) had to narrowly admit defeat.
“I always hoped that I could win a race in this beautiful jersey. That’s the ultimate. I’m incredibly proud and happy,” said Zimmermann in the HR: “I thought for a moment that I had gambled away. I rode from the front for the last 150 meters and threw everything that was still there onto the pedals.”
Thanks to brilliant tactics, the Augsburg resident celebrated the first German victory since 2019, when sprint specialist Pascal Ackermann triumphed. Zimmermann is the 14th German to make it to the top of the podium.
The even tighter route made a lot of demands on the drivers this year; a total of more than 3,300 meters of altitude had to be covered – the field spread out accordingly over the course of the afternoon. A five-man breakaway group around Jonasrutsch (Erbach/Intermarché-Wanty) had formed early on and was up to 6:30 minutes ahead of the peloton. In this group, especially on the climbs, slip dictated the pace and ultimately secured the mountain classification of the race.
However, around the halfway point, the lead dwindled rapidly; this was the phase in which the second, particularly demanding crossing of the Feldberg took place. From a good six minutes, the field worked its way down to around a minute – Slip and three other breakaways kept this distance to the main field constant in the flatter descent that followed, but a chasing group was now already approaching. A good 60 kilometers from the finish, Gleit and Co. were caught up.
As the race progressed, twelve riders, including Zimmermann, broke away, but they were swallowed up shortly before the finish. Zimmermann pushed courageously in the sprint and celebrated his fifth professional victory.
