Deutschland Tour: Louis Barré swipes bonus seconds and surprising win on stage 1 to go into race lead

Louis Barré (Visma-Lease a Bike) launched a fierce acceleration with 2km to go and won stage 1 of the Deustchland Tour.

Prologue winner Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) sprinted to second place on the stage in a five-rider chase, with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) going third. Natnael Tesfazion (Movistar), Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) and Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike) followed in the group for the top six, 16 seconds behind Barré.

The Frenchman started the day 14 seconds down on Del Toro, and wasn't seen as a major threat. He added 10 seconds for the win plus bonus seconds along the latter part of the stage to leap past Del Toro as the new race leader, now with a 9-second advantage.

Compatriot Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) was only two seconds down on GC to start the day and had made a move with Barré at the Bonus sprint point on a finishing circuit with just 2.5km to race. They scooped up three and two second, respectively, then Barré took off solo.

Magnier lost all steam on the climb to the finish line, swarmed by the peloton, and finished 1:16 back, now 31st overall.

"It's a really good victory. But I knew I had really good legs when I arrived here, like in Pologne last week. I'm really happy to win today and to beat strong riders, so it's it's really nice," Barre told broadcasters at the finish.

Just two weeks ago the 26-year-old earned his first victory for his new Visma team on stage 6 at the Tour de Pologne, which was also his first major career win as a pro rider. Now he has a second victory and a leader's jersey.

"I did the boni [bonification sprint], and I saw on top only Paul [Magnier] was with me, and I went full to the line. Paul, I thought he could he could finish with me, but I think he didn't recover after the hard effort."

Late attacks and time bonuses

The opening prologue was only 2.6km, and five riders decided to continue with a fast frenzy on stage 1's hilly 215.3 kilometres. Right away from the start in Bad Orb, Lennart Voege (Storck-MRW Bau), Ellande Larronde (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Alexandre Kess (LottoKern-Haus Outlet Montebauer) and REMBE l rad-net duo Ole Theiler and Miguel Heidemann rushed away.

Kess and Voege were only part of the opening act for the first few kilometres and the first hills approached, leaving the escapades for the remaining 210km to the other three riders.

Larronde and his pair of German companions from the REMBE squad gained as much as five minutes on the peloton after 75km of racing, bringing them to the first of two classified climbs, Reicholzheim (2.5km at 5.4%).

UAE Team Emirates-XRG began to go to work at the front of the peloton another 25km on, Lidl-Trek and Soudal-QuickStep riders keeping an eye on the leader's team. The increased pace began to chip away at the gap to the lead trio, soon down to just two minutes on the approach to the the second KOM, Hermersberg (1.8km at 6.8%), with just 54km to go.

The trio still had aspirations of making to the finish at Schwäbisch Hall to fight for podium spots as they crested the second KOM, but their day ended on the back side of the climb.

Two intermediate sprints were next on the route for green jersey points, reigniting interest for attacks. Théo Hébert (TotalEnergies) launched a solo attack into Waldenburg for three jersey points, with 39km to go.

The Frenchman carved out a 30-second gap across the next 5km as the continuously rolling roads dried from earlier rain. Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike) went on a solo chase to reel back the move as Hébert headed to the finish cricuit.

Kelderman notched success to join Hébert and the two worked together with a 45-second advantage and 10km to the final green jersey points, which also signaled under 13km to go to the finish circuit. The Visma rider, only 15 seconds behind the race lead after the prologue, rode as the virtual leader.

Lidl-Trek and Soudal-QuickStep fueled the engine of the peloton in the chase behind. The leaders still had 27 seconds as they heard the bell ring for the finish in another 12.9km.

With 2.5km to go for three riders to share six bonus seconds, the peloton swept up the lead duo and accelerations were underway, led by two riders from Tudor Pro. But on the steep incline to that line saw Louis Barré (Visma-Lease a Bike) outduel second-placed Magnier, riding in the green jersey, for three seconds, the Frenchman getting two, Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) getting a single second.

With bonus seconds deposited, the duo kept on the gas with a gap to a strung out peloton, broken apart by the short climb. Barré then went on the attack alone.

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