Off the heels of winning a stage at the Tour of Denmark, Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) secured the prologue victory and pulled on the first leader's jersey at the five-day Deutschland Tour.
The Norwegian rider posted the fastest time of 3:31 minutes across the 3.1km course in Essan, winning the race against the clock by a fraction of a second ahead of runner-up Samuel Watson (Ineos Grenadiers) and just over one second faster than third-placed Marco Haller (Tudor Pro Cycling).
"Maybe a little bit," Wærenskjold said when asked if he was surprised by his prologue victory. "The last time I did a prologue it was at l'Avenir, so at least a few years ago. I was a bit excited for this race and a little bit nervous. I tried to go full-gas and it worked out."
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Wærenskjold now leads the overall classification by one second ahead of Watson and two seconds ahead of Haller as the race heads into stage 1 from Essen to Herford on Thursday.
"It's one or two harder stages and sprint stages, so hopefully we can do well in the general classification. We came here with a good sprint team and with some boys, so hopefully we can hang on in the harder climbs also," he said.
The opening stage of the Pro Series Deutschland Tour saw a high-quality field that included Visma-Lease a Bike's Wout van Aert, who will work for Matthew Brennan, along with rival sprinters Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility), and Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
While four stages are flat and two are hilly, the race could go to either a puncheur or a sprinter after five days of racing.
Wærenskjold said that a good warm-up was the key to his success in the flat 3.1km time trial, and that he was able to gradually increase his power as he raced back into Essen.
"I tried to at least have the rollers during the bike check. I was on a spare bike on the rollers next to the start line. I got out a little bit better with more blood flow in my legs, compared to sitting down for eight to ten minutes before a time trial. I think that was the key, to do well, today," he said.
"I also tried to go all-out and through the corners, try to go hard from the start, but also progressively increasing power through the race. I tried to hit that maximum feeling of lactic acid in the legs at the end."
Ilan van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep) set an early benchmark of 3:38, but that would only be good enough to reach the top 20 by the end of this time trial.
Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor Pro cycling) posted a time of 3:34, which stood its ground for much longer, but he finished in seventh place.
Haller was the next to arrive at the hot seat with a time of 3:33, and good enough for a podium spot. Out-pacing Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), who finished fifth, and Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in fourth.
Wærenskjold raced in with the new fastest time of 3:31, with an average speed of 52.6kph, and the rider to come closest to that benchmark was runner-up Watson with a time of 3:32.
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