Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) sprinted to his first win of 2026 at the Rund um Köln, as a late, three-man break got away in the final 50km and held off the charging peloton to the finish line.
Outnumbered by two Pinarello-Q36.5 riders in Aimé De Gendt and Fred Wright, Pithie looked on the back foot in the late move, but even after De Gendt led out the sprint for Wright, the New Zealand rider had the better turn of speed to win.
De Gendt held on for third, whilst it was Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) who won the sprint from the bunch for fourth.
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The trio went with 46km to go after the break was caught early, and never had much more than a 30-second gap, as small as 10 seconds at points in the final 20km, but the Pinarello-Q36.5 cooperation helped them hold off to the finish.
The day's break went quite early on, made up of five Continental riders who were there to win some intermediates and get some coverage for their teams before the finale. The peloton were happy to let them do their thing for the bulk of the race, but they were caught quite early, with 62km to go.
With the break brought back, Louis Barré (Visma-Lease a Bike) went on a solo counterattack into the final 50km, but on his own, he didn't survive for long.
The next move was a lot stronger, with Pinarello-Q36.5 duo of De Gendt and Wright getting away with Pithie over one of the late climbs. They built a gap of 30 seconds with 35km to go, but it wasn't an easy task to hold off the peloton.
Robbe Dhondt (Picnic PostNL) tried to bridge across, but couldn't make it, as the climbs and high pace strung out and split the bunch. With 15km to go and all the climbing done, the three leaders were only holding onto a narrow 10-second gap ahead of a small chase group, with the peloton not far behind.
As the peloton caught the chasers, it looked like it would be day over for the leaders, and it was touch-and-go for the final 10km, but impressively they managed to hold off the bunch, with Pithie sprinting to the win.
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