Greipel triumphs in German road race championships

Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) won the mass sprint in Wangen to take his first German national road race title.

The sprinter beat Gerald Ciolek (MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung) and John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) in the pouring rain.

“I have tried so often but never won it. Going to the Tour de France with the national champion's jersey makes me very happy,” said Greipel with a sincere smile.

Despite the sprint finish, the race was aggressively fought out. Attack followed attack during the race, with various groups getting up to a three and a half minute gap, but most were caught again.

Theo Reinhardt (rad-net ROSE Team), Marcel Meisen (Team BKCP-Power Plus), Thomas Koep (Team Stölting), Andreas Schillinger (NetApp-Endura) and Mike-Aaron Egger (Bergstraße-Jenatec) took a 1:47 advantage into the last of six laps of the 37.5km course.

By then the rain had started, and Egger was the first to fall out of the group. But this group too was caught, and a new large group formed, with almost all the big names in it. Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) was the only favourite not to have made the cut.

The rain grew harder and the attacks continued, but the fast men and their helpers kept things together, with Greipel eventually proving to be the best on the day. The group had kept their tempo so high that the next riders crossed the line six minutes later.

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