Vattenfall Cyclassics 2015 [LAST 10 KM]

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• published: 23 Aug 2015
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Follow me on Twitter to stay updated : https://twitter.com/Tizucumacu Hamburg 221 KM *********************************************************************** Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) claimed the win in the bunch sprint at the Vattenfall Cyclassics in Hamburg. Second place went to Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), who went in the lead too early and ended up setting up his German rival perfectly. Giacomo Nizzoli of Trek was third. Greipel surprisingly had never won the Vattenfall Cyclassics before in his career, but this time a perfect storm of a late crash taking out Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quickstep) and Kristoff hitting out prematurely helped the German finally win in Hamburg. “That was super work from the team, although after crashes in the finale we only had four guys," Greipel said. “I have often hoped to win here. Today it finally worked out.” The race got off to an unusual start in the harbour city of Kiel, with the peloton taking off from a ferry on to the mainland. Shortly after the start, a four-man group got away. Jan Barta (Bora-Argon 18), Matteo Bono (Lampre-Merida), Alex Dowsett (Movistar) and Martin Mortensen (Cult Energy) pulled away and built up a gap of up to five minutes. MTN-Qhubeka led the chase much of the day, before Lotto-Soudal and Katusha, with their top sprint candidates, moved in. With 60 km to go, Bono and Mortensen were alone in the lead with a gap of less than a minute. The gap continued to fall and with 43 km to go, the gap was about 30 seconds, and the leading duo had been joined by Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Matthias Brändle (IAM). However, by the 20 km marker, it had all come back together, with a peloton of about 75 riders. Linus Gerdemann (Cult Energy) was one of the first to attack, and he and Julien Alaphilippe put in a strong effort, but were never far away from the field. They were swallowed up with 10 km to go. A crash with less than 3 km to go took down Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) and Giant-Alpecin’s Marcel Kittel had been dropped on the third climb of the day, so two top favourites were eliminated. As could be expected, it came down to defending champion Kristoff and Greipel. The Norwegian opened the sprint, but unfortunately for him, Greipel was directly on his wheel. The German powered past Kristoff and easily cruised in to take his first Vattenfall win. Results : 1 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal 4:57:05 2 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha 3 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek Factory Racing 4 Tom Boonen (Bel) Etixx - Quick-Step 5 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 6 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ.fr 7 Matti Breschel (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo 8 Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 9 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Lampre-Merida 10 Rasmus Guldhammer (Den) Cult Energy Pro Cycling 11 Davide Cimolai (Ita) Lampre-Merida 12 Ruslan Tleubayev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 13 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) MTN - Qhubeka 14 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky 15 Arman Kamyshev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:00:01 16 Ralf Matzka (Ger) Bora-Argon 18 17 Luka Pibernik (Slo) Lampre-Merida 18 Lasse Norman Hansen (Den) Cannondale-Garmin Team 19 Rick Zabel (Ger) BMC Racing Team 20 Sondre Holst Enger (Nor) IAM Cycling 21 Aleksejs Saramotins (Lat) IAM Cycling 22 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step 23 Borut Bozic (Slo) Astana Pro Team 24 Roy Curvers (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 25 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 26 Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Movistar Team 0:00:02 27 Silvan Dillier (Swi) BMC Racing Team 28 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) FDJ.fr 29 Michael Valgren Andersen (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo 30 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:00:03