Madis Mihkels (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) exploded to the front of a bunch sprint to win stage 3 of the Deutschland Tour in Essen.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m super happy, and a little bit surprised also,” the 20-year-old Estonian said about his first pro career win. “I knew this stage could suit me. The level here is super high and I’m just surprised that I won.”
Race leader Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quick Step) retained his 11-second lead in the general classification ahead of Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates) and a 13-second advantage ahead of Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers).
With his runner-up finish, Van Poppel moved up two spots in the GC to fourth, 16 seconds back. Pello Bilbao finished in 33rd position in the main front group, but dropped to 11th on GC.
Bora-Hansgrohe led out the bunch sprint, and Mihkels understood he had work to do.
“Actually, 1k to go I was still a little bit too far," he said following the race finish. "Then I decided the only way is to come alone to the win because at this moment I didn’t have anybody from my team. I took a risk and I just accelerated behind Bora. Luckily I had legs to outsprint them.
“This is my biggest victory ever and I feel so relieved now.”
The sun came back for stage 3, which featured 173.8km with 1,520 metres of elevation gain, a day of constant rolling hills. The finale in Essen is approached from the south, after a first pass of the finish line in front of the Stadtgarten before completing a circuit.
The first attacks came just 4km from the start in Arnsberg, but all efforts were thwarted by an active peloton. After passing the 1.1km climb of Eule Frondenberg, and more attacks did not stick, three riders finally got separation - Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies), Juri Hollman (Movistar) and Frank van den Broek (Team dsm-firmenich).
The trio stayed away for just over 93km, Bora-Hansgohe working at the front of the peloton. With under 66km to go, Michael Gogl (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Fabien Grellier (TotalEnergies) accelerated and stole away.
With 50km to go, Michael Gogl and Fabien Grellier had a 30-second advantage, and 13km later both riders were back in the peloton.
Closing on the final 30km, TotalEnergies’ Anthony Turgis launched a solo attack. He gained time on the peloton and held only a 12-second lead on the final two circuits of the race with 14km to go.
On the first of the two circuits, several riders went down in a corner 2km from the final lap, including Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe), who was sitting sixth overall, and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), eighth overall, both working to get back into the peloton with 4km to go in the race.
The long finish straight provided a playground for the first bunch sprint finish of the stage race.
Results
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