Deutschland Tour: Arvid de Kleijn wins stage 4 while Ilan van Wilder secures GC victory

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Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor Pro Cycling) won stage 4 in Bremen of the Deutschland Tour on Sunday with a long-range attack at the front of the peloton. Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) failed to make the pass and took second with Marius Mayrhofer (Team dsm-firmenich) in third.

Ilan van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep), who grabbed the leader’s jersey with a win after the prologue on stage 1, finished safely in the bunch to secure the overall classification. The stage 1 and GC victories were the first of his young professional career.

Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates) secured second overall by 11 seconds, while Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) scored bonification points on the final Bremen finish circuit to jump over Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) for third, both on same time at 13 seconds back.

Maikel Zijlaard led out his Tudor Pro teammate after passing the 1km-to-go kite, launching the attack in the centre of the two-lane road. Emilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies) accelerated on the right side to pass Zijlaard, but at the same moment, De Kleijn made his move on the left side of his teammate. Bauhaus and Mayrhofer overtook Jeannière as well, but did not have enough left to overtake De Kleijn. 

Jeannière finished fourth, just ahead of Rudijer Selig (Lotto Dstny), Ethan Vernon (Soudal-QuickStep) and Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates).

“It was a special week, full of emotions. I had a super-strong team by my side. They protected me really well. We defended the jersey every day, we were in the mix for the victories. What can I say? It was just an amazing week for us,” said Van Wilder, who also won the best young rider classification.

“There was some wind [today] but we were always in the first part. It was just important to stay on the bike and not crash before the last 3k. We succeeded.”

The final stage of the five-day stage race was flat from Hannover to Bremen, just 519 metres, and it was high on action as the sprint teams pressed for position on a last chance to validate speed.

Half-way through the 175,6km route, the front group of five German riders had a 3:50 advantage - Vinzent Dorn (Bike Aid), Jan-Marc Temmen and Silas Köch (Saris Rouvy Sauerland), Tobias Nolde and Dominik Röber (P&S Benotti).

Nolde was the final rider to stay away, but the eager teams with sprinters picked up the pace as the race went under 25km to go and the P&S Benotti rider’s solo quest ended 2km later.

Going through the finish line for the first time for finishing circuits, three laps of 5km each,  the pace picked up in the peloton, led by Bora-Hansgrohe, Q36.5 Pro Cycling and Tudor Pro  Cycling. There were two final intermediate sprints on the circuits, Ethan Vernon (Soudal-QuickStep) leading Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) by one point on the final day. Vernon grabbed five points on the first of the two passes across the line.

The penultimate lap led the final intermediate and bonus sprint, led out by Ineos Grenadiers for Sivakov, but Van Poppel made the pass to give him 3 seconds and bring him on same time with Sivakov for third place on GC.

After one last pass of the 5km circuit, it came down to a bunch sprint. Vernon tried to give Soudal-QuickStep a third stage win, but came up short, Tudor Pro taking the spoils.

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