Ackermann takes out German road race title

Pascal Ackermann of Bora-Hansgrohe continued his successful season by winning the bunch sprint in the German national road race. He topped the country's better-known sprinters, with John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) second and Max Walscheid (Sunweb) third.

Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) was fourth, with Marcel Kittel still struggling for his form in 10th.

Bora-Hansgrohe's goal was to keep the title within the team. "[2017 champion] Marcus Burghardt said he would love to hand over the jersey to me," the 24-year-old Ackermann said after the race. "But it still feels a little surreal now wearing it.

"We knew that it was key to go into the last corner already in front. My team did a great job to deliver me in a perfect position. I still had Rudi (Selig) in front of me coming on to the home straight, basically I just had to roll over the line then."

The German field took off for 19 laps of a 12km totally flat circuit in and around Einhausen on a hot and sunny day. The race was marked by a series of breakaways, with Bora-hansgrohe and Katusha-Alpecin keeping a sharp eye on the happenings.

All the groups were brought back, and the expected mass sprint was set up. On the difficult closing section, Rick Zabel tried to set things up for Kittel, but Selig and Ackermann took control. Walscheid protested the win, claiming he was hindered by Selig and Ackermann, but the jury upheld the finish.

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