Politt solos to victory on stage 3 of Deutschland Tour

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Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohë) won the third stage of the Deutschland Tour, escaping on a small climb eight kilometres from the finish with Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Victorious) and thwarting the ambitions of the sprinters’ teams who had expected the stage to once again end in a bunch finish. 

Politt’s victory with the accompanying ten bonus seconds, coupled with an eleven-second time gap over the peloton also gave him the overall race lead. His teammate Pascal Ackermann drops to second place overall, eight seconds behind Politt.

The lure of bonus seconds on a small climb at 8.4km from the finish provoked a flurry of attacks from the peloton, and, from this small group, Politt attacked multiple times until he soloed to victory.

“It was planned to sprint with Pascal [Ackermann],” Politt said at the finish, “but after the bonus seconds we had a small group and then I decided to attack. At first, I was not sure if I could go, I was asking the sports director on the radio if I had the freedom. He said if you are alone with Dylan Teuns then you can go. It was a little bit of a gamble because he had [Phil] Bauhaus in the peloton and I had Pascal Ackermann. I escaped from Dylan, I came in alone and from this point everything was perfect.”

“We have to figure out a good plan for tomorrow now. For sure Quickstep will try something. We’ll have to see if there’s a sprint tomorrow in Nürnberg, but it will be a tough race.”

How it unfolded

For the third day in a row, rain fell on the peloton as, clad in waterproofs and arm-warmers, it traversed through the medieval cobbled towns and forests of the Bavarian countryside. 

The Stützerbach Climb was the first climb of the day, arriving after just six kilometres, and multiple riders launched attacks from the peloton to gain mountain points. Eventually, Jannis Peter (German National Team) was victorious, taking three points, Louis Vervaeke (Alpecin-Fenix) took two and Stephan Bassett (Rally Cycling) mopped up the final one point.

Vervaeke, who began the day jointly leading the mountains classification with Kyle Murphy (Rally Cycling), moved into the outright lead with his second place. 

These attackers were absorbed back into the peloton and the breakaway formed shortly afterwards. Henri Uhlig (German National Team), Bert De Backer (B&B Hotels), Julian Lino (Bike Aid) and Abram Stockman (Team SKS Sauerland NRW) escaped for the majority of the stage, but the high pace in the peloton doomed their endeavours from the start.

Bahrain-Victorious, UAE Team Emirates and Bora-Hansgrohë controlled the race for their respective sprinters and ensured that the gap to the breakaway hovered at around two and a half minutes.

The breakaway remained out front for the intermediate sprint in Strullendorf though it was largely uncontested; only Uhlig attacked while his breakaway companions rolled through behind him. He won the maximum five points with Stockman and Lino taking the remaining points in second and third, respectively. 

In the ever-present game of cat and mouse that marks the interactions between the peloton and the breakaway, there is always a point at which the peloton suddenly awakens to the danger posed by the breakaway. As the time gap remained at two minutes with less than 20km to go, Deceuninck-Quickstep also committed to the chase for the first time, sending Remi Cavagna to ride on the front of the peloton

The steepest part of the Marloffstein Climb marked the entry to the finishing circuit, and it was on these slopes that the newly Deceuninck-led peloton began to reel in the breakaway.

Defiantly, de Backer lifted the pace correspondingly in the break and his attack distanced Stockman.

Ten kilometres later, various riders began to catapult themselves from the peloton, in the hope of gaining bonus seconds on a small climb 8.4km from the finish and the resulting injection of pace hastened the breakaway catch. Marcel Meisen (Alpecin-Fenix) took the three bonus seconds.

This group of general classification contenders split the peloton and though Jannick Steimle (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) attempted to neutralise the attacks that followed to ensure a bunch sprint for Mark Cavendish, Politt proved too strong.

Continually attacking with Teuns, Politt eventually distanced the Belgian and soloed to an impressive victory. Teuns held on for second place, and in the bunch sprint behind Ackermann took third.