Demare wins Vattenfalls Cyclassics

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Arnaud Demare of FDJ-BigMat took the biggest win of his career at the Vattenfalls Cyclassics in Hamburg, Germany. The young Frenchman mastered Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) and Giaccomo Nizzolo (RadioShack-Nissan) in the mass sprint.

A trio dominated the early part of the race. Andeas Dietziker (NetApp), Jesse Sergent RadioShack-Nissan) and Gregor Gazvoda (AG2R) were the early break, although they never had more than about a two-minute lead.

With about 60km to go, Marco Pinotti of BMC attacked, and soon the three leaders were caught and passed, and a new group had formed with Pinotti, Alexander Porsev (Katusha), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ), Martin Mortensen (Vacansoleil-DCM), Yaroslav Popovych (RadioShack-Nissan), Christopher Juul Jensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) und Matteo Bono (Lampre-ISD).

A crash along the way took out Stuart O'Grady (Orica-GreenEdge), with a fractured collarbone.

The gap to the leading group was never large, as Sky, with last year's winner Edvald Boasson Hagen, was unwilling to let them get away. They were caught again on the third of four climbs up the Waseberg, and immediately a new group formed, about a dozen riders including Tom Boonen and Peter Sagan. Boonen tried to take off on his own, but the group was too dangerous - and not working together at all - and everyone was soon together again.

Sagan had a blow to his chances with 18km to go, as he had a mechanical whilst on the final climb up the Waseberg.

With 14km to go, Ben Hermans of RadioShack-Nissan took off on a solo effort. The chasing group was totally unorganized and couldn't decide who should lead the chase - playing right into Hermans' hands. A four-man group finally formed, and the field behind them splintered into multiple groups.

The foursome was soon joined by more and more riders, and they caught Hermans with some 8km to go. The peloton regrouped and caught them all. Further attacks followed but the expected mass sprint came about.

A crash with only a few hundred meters to go broke up the field, and an Orica-GreenEdge racer appeared to have been injured. At the finish line, Demare clearly outsprinted the top names for the prestigious win.

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