Red-white-red triumph at the 25th Hamburg Cyclassics: The Austrian outsider Marco Haller prevailed against Wout van Aert in the final sprint at the anniversary edition of the cycling race on Sunday.
Unlike so often before, this time the closed field did not race towards the finish line on the Mönckebergstraße. Two events led to this. A good 29 kilometers before the finish line there was a mass crash on the first approach to the Waseberg. Many top sprinters in the selected field of participants were involved, including the newly crowned European champion Fabio Jakobsen (Netherlands).
On the other hand, Belgian Olympic silver medalist van Aert, who won three stages of the Tour de France this year and secured the green jersey, tore the front field apart with a hard start on the third and last crossing of the Waseberg.
Four drivers were able to follow him. And this quintet didn’t let the peloton get close either. With one kilometer to go, the escapees still had a 16-second lead and they couldn’t let that go. Haller from the German team Bora-hansgrohe ultimately won the sprint ahead of van Aert and his Belgian compatriot Quinten Hermans.
The 31-year-old winner could hardly believe his luck. “Everyone knows Hamburg as one of the most important races of the year. I’m very happy that I won. I’ve only had one World Tour victory, and that was a little while back in 2012,” said Haller on NDR.
“A dream becomes true.”
— Marco Haller, winner Cyclassics 2022
When van Aerts started he stayed with his line. “When he put his butt up, I said to myself that I was going at my pace. And then I had the grit too, so I could close the gap. Beating Wout van Aert is one thing, but after 200+ Having good legs for kilometers makes me very proud. I didn’t think I could beat Wout until a meter from the finish.” It was the first triumph of an Austrian in Hamburg.
The German champion Nils Politt was delighted with his team-mate’s victory: “It’s a super nice day. It’s an emotional victory for me too, he’s such a loyal driver. That’s a really big number from him.” Van Aert took it sporty: “It’s a nice race here, but the outcome was a bit disappointing for me.”
The German drivers played no role in the decision. The best German was Phil Bauhaus from Bocholt in seventh place.
So it remains the case that André Greipel from Rostock is the last German winner of the Cyclassics with his triumph in 2015. The anniversary edition, which started on Sunday at 11.20 a.m. in the city of Hamburg, was a little shorter than the last edition before the corona pandemic. The 2019 race still had 216.4 kilometers to go and the steep Waseberg (up to 16 percent incline) had to be climbed four more times. On Sunday there were “only” three crossings over the “Tourmalet” of the metropolis on the Elbe, the route was 204.7 kilometers long.
The pros drove via the west of the Hanseatic city, Schenefeld, Pinneberg and Barmstedt until just before Bad Bramstedt, before they went via Holm, Wedel and Blankenese (with that Waseberg triple) to the finish on Mönckebergstraße, where Haller shortly after 4 p.m threw up his arms in jubilation.
14,000 “everyone” at the start
The so-called “Everyman” started a few hours before the pros. In contrast to previous years, there were only two distances for the approximately 14,000 women and men this time, the long distance over 160 kilometers was eliminated.
The hobby cyclists rode on a circuit from the city to the west of Hamburg – the 60 kilometers led to Holm, the 100 kilometers via Uetersen to Elmshorn. In both cases, the goal was Mönckebergstraße.
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sports club | 08/21/2022 | 2:30 p.m
