A crazy finale to stage 2 of the Deutschland Tour saw Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) snatch victory from Riley Sheehan (Israel-Premier Tech) at the last moment, only pipping the US rider on the line after he celebrated too early from a late breakaway.
The Ecuadorian Champion and Sheehan got away in a trio with Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) after the Norwegian attacked a rising road with 7.8km to go. They cooperated to hold off a chase behind from the GC leaders and played out the sprint for the win.
Wærenskjold got stuck on the front in the final kilometre, flicking his elbow for someone to come through with no response. Sheehan launched first, knowing he would have to go early and surprise if he was to win from elite company.
Narváez played things perfectly, in typical fashion, kicking off his sprint into Sheehan's wheel and coming out of the American's slipstream to beat him on the line in Arnsberg. Marius Mayfhofer (Tudor Pro Cycling) chased alone in no-man's-land to finish fourth, with Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) leading the bunch home 14 seconds after the leaders.
Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) also finished in the Milan group, but ceded the overall lead to Wærenskjold, thanks to the bonus seconds gained on the line and the gap to the chasers. Narváez moved to second overall, one second back, with Sheehan well within touching distance at a four-second disadvantage.
"It was a crazy final, but we gained the right momentum in the end. It was a nice race," said Narváz, who had been on the attack earlier in the stage to try and make the day difficult from a break, with UAE starting in Germany without a sprinter.
"I recovered well after the Tour de France training at home, being quiet with my family, and then I came straight here – it's always nice to win."
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He wasn't overly bullish about now winning the GC, simply stating: "Let's see how the situation is now."
(Image credit: Getty Images)
A five-man breakaway got up the road to kick off stage 2 of the Deutschland Tour from Herford, with 190km separating them from the finish in Arnsberg. It was made up of Vincent Bodet (Picnic-PostNL), Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty), Vinzent Dorn (BIKE AID), Miguel Heidemann (REMBE-rad-net) and Emīls Liepiņš (Q36.5 Pro Cycling).
They would last for the majority of the stage, with Rutsch the last to be caught with 18km to go and into the punchy finishing circuit in and around Arnsberg. After taking the bell, Visma-Lease a Bike continued to lead the peloton, having done much of the controlling.
After this, the last phase of racing that followed was an all-out brawl to the line, with several attacks and a breathless chase by the top sprinters in an attempt not to miss out.
It all kicked off on stage 2 after the bonus seconds sprint 15km from the line, where Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) outsprinted Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain-Victorious) and Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) to the maximum prize.
There was an unfortunate crash in the final phase of racing for German national champion Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty), which also saw Tour de France podium finisher Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) crash hard off the side of the road, but both were thankfully able to finish.
The attacks came thick and fast in the last 10km off the back of the bonus seconds sprint, with Ivan Roméo (Movistar), Narváez and Sheehan all trying at points to get away. The best pure sprinters were still in contact after Milan and Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) worked to make it into the lead group.
But the decisive blow came from Wærenskjold inside the last 8km, with his move on an uphill section drawing out the Ecuadorian Champion and young US rider. It dropped most of the lead group after a furious end to the stage, and they would go on to play out the final sprint, with Narváez taking a narrow victory – UAE's 73 of 2025.
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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