Milan-San Remo winner Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) won a soggy sprint in the Eschborn-Frankfurt, beating race-favorite German John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) on his home turf. Belgian Jérôme Baugnies (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) was third from several bike lengths behind.

"I never expected this before the race,” Kristoff said. “I have to be honest, after Paris-Roubaix I took a well-deserved break and these past few days I just did long distance training, and I had a travel day yesterday. On the bike, I didn’t feel good in the beginning but then when you see your teammates doing a perfect job, the only thing I had to do was to follow. In the end, I started to feel better and better. Moreover, I never start a race with the idea that I will not finish. I’ll always do the sprint, and when I had such a perfect train in front of me, it was my duty to try to win. I’m really happy to put my name on the winner’s list."

The field caught a 10-man breakaway near the end of the race. Kristoff’s teammate, Alexandr Kolobnev, made a timely counter attack but was caught by the field in the last 10km. Kristoff, who was already well-placed near the front of the peloton, started his sprint with 300 meters to go. He said that during last 200 meters he was taking in a lot of wind but felt strong enough to continue to sprint.

“Most likely Degenkolb was a bit more tired,” Kristoff said. “He was the local favorite and everybody was watching him. In the end, he had to work himself too, thanks to the perfect job of Kolobnev who attacked earlier. A perfect day, and again, a win in the rain. The roads were sometimes very slippery but we managed to survive. We even did more..."

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