Isaac Del Toro put in a stunning ride to take victory in the Prologue at the Lidl Deutschland Tour on Wednesday.
The UAE Team Emirates rider stopped the clock in a time of 3:08 on the short but sharp 2.6km course around Bad Orb in western Germany. Having led the race for much of the day, Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) finished second just under a second behind the Mexican champion, while his teammate Laurez Rex was third five seconds behind the leader.
Del Toro started the day as the penultimate rider and his three minute ride was a tense affair on drying roads, but he will take a decent lead into the four, lumpy remaining stages.
“It was a hard one for everybody I think, but yeah I’m not going to lie, I think they would have helped a bit otherwise Magnier was still in the lead, but yeah he did a crazy good job happy with the team, everybody helped me and give me some morale for these three minutes.
"I mean obviously I didn’t want to take risks so I took the corner last safe as I can and then the sprint in line, but yeah super happy to take this," Del Toro said.
"It’s supposed to be really good honestly I feel really good on the bike, but yeah mentally I’m recovering as well, so we’ll see how it is this week but happy to be back. On paper it’s tricky here in Deutschland but we will see day by day and I’m happy with how it went today."
For its 40th edition, the Deutschland Tour began with a 2.6km prologue ahead of the remaining four stages to be held in the coming days.
Held in Bad Orb, just east Frankfurt, the course was uphill from the start ramp before dropping in the second half of the race, though it was hardly a climber’s course, with only 45 metres of elevation gain. While it was short, the course tackled eight corners with a long sweeping right hand bend to the finish line and with set roads early in the day, the course was a technical one.
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Home rider Jakob Neumann (Storck-MRW Bau) was first down the ramp in the 2.Pro second division race, stopping the clock in a time of 3:52, though he led for just a handful of seconds as new best times were set.
The likes of Luc Wirtgen (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Henri Uhlig (Alpecin-Premier Tech) both led the race, the latter occupying the hot seat for a long time, though as the roads began to dry times began to drop.
Fresh from victory at the ADAC Cyclassics at the weekend, Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) set a time of 3:10, and while others threatened his time, the Frenchman spent a considerable time in the leader’s hot seat, no one able to get within three seconds of him until Del Tor set his scorching time.
Paul Magnier of Soudal-QuickStep settled for second in the prologue to Bad Orb (Image credit: Getty Images)
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A recent addition to the Cyclingnews staff, Owen Rogers is an experienced journalist, working as a freelancer covering the sport for various magazines and websites for more than 10 years.
Initially concentrating mainly on the women's sport, he has covered hundreds of race days on the ground and interviewed some of the sport's biggest names.
Living near Cambridge in the UK, when he's not working you'll find him either riding his bike or playing drums.
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