Wegmann takes second consecutive Frankfurt win

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Fabian Wegmann of Team Milram completed his comeback from a broken collarbone and defended his title in Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt, taking the sprint of a greatly-reduced field. Two Landbouwkrediet riders finished second and third, Geert Verheyen and Bert Scheirlinckx.

The peloton had fallen back enough to be pulled from the race after the first of three laps of a closing circuit course, leaving only about 30 riders to go for the win. Milram had three in that group, and set things up for their captain perfectly.

"It doesn't get any better than this," said the ecstatic winner. He was in the lead early, and "I didn't look back, I just kept on going. I've had so much bad luck this year, and this is fantastic, to win my favourite race again."

"I worked hard. It was a large group and hard work. I gambled by waiting, then finally went for it. Niki Terpstra rode really great for me, Christian Knees, too."

The race got off to a damp start, as the roads were wet from overnight rain and there was still a light drizzle. About 10km into the day a six-rider group formed. Dirk Müller (Team Nutrixxion Sparkasse), Ralf Matzka (Team Heizomat), Frank Wagner (Seven Stones), Timon Seubert (Team NetApp), Johannes Kahra (Kuota Indeland) and Josef Benetseder (Vorarlberg-Corratec) built up a lead of up to 3:30, but once the route starting climbing, the gap shrank.

The group fell apart on the Ruppertshainer climb, and by the time the descent was over, Müller was alone in front, but not for long. He too was caught, and soon a new group formed. That was the pattern for many kilometres, as various groups and individuals tried their luck.

By kilometre 118, Matteo Carrara of Vacansoliel had managed to get away. Some 20km later he was joined by Katusha's Evgeni Petrov, but a large chasing group was only 30 seconds behind them.

With 40km to go, it was clear that HTC-Columbia was not going to be involved in the win. None of its riders had gotten into the large chase group, and the six-minute gap to the two leaders was too great.

Jerome Coppel of Saur-SojaSun joined the two leaders with 30km left in the race, but the group was caught before they all started on the three laps of the closing circuit course. Numerous riders goat away, with groups forming and falling apart. Meanwhile, the peloton was taken out after the first lap. Their gap of about five minutes was too great for the short circuit course.

Another Saur SojaSun rider took off solo, Julien Simon, with just over 6km left. He never had much of a lead but managed to stay away until just before the 1km marker. Three Milram riders led the way to the end, with Wegmann, not known as a sprinter, going into the wind early and managing to hold on until the end.

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