Viviani wins EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg

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Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) claimed his third straight EuroEyes Cyclassics victory in Hamburg on Sunday, taking out the bunch sprint ahead of Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data).

The European champion timed his surge to perfection, waiting patiently as teammate Michael Morkov set a blistering pace into the final 200m then surged with such force that no one could come around.

A hot and sunny late summer day welcomed the peloton to the 216km with a start and finish in Hamburg. In the relatively flat lands of northern Germany, decent climbs are hard to find, but this race always includes four times up the Waseberg - a 700m climb but with a gradient up to 9.7 per cent gradient. All four climbs come in roughly the last third of the race, with the final one only 8 km before finish. However, the race traditionally ends in a bunch sprint, as it did again today.

Four riders got away early and after 50km had a lead of over ten minutes with Gijs Van Hoecke (CCC), Jose Goncalves (Katusha-Alpecin), Alex Frame (Trek-Segafredo) and Igor Boev (Gazprom-RusVelo) part of the group.

Frame couldn't keep up with his companions and was the first to fall back. The remaining trio fought hard but had no chance against the sprinters' teams. The gap fell dramatically, down to 2:30 with 40km still to go.

Their time was over on Waseberg as various riders, including Bora-hansgrohe's Peter Sagan, attempted to get away, but no one was allowed to stay away.

With five kilometers left, Deceuninck-Quick Step and Lotto Soudal took over command of the field. Although once again teams including Groupama and Ineos moved to the front near the end, they had no chance against Viviani, who won with a clear advantage over Ewan.

Provisional Results