Sam Bennett wins Sparkassen Munsterland Giro

Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the Sparkassen Munsterland Giro on Tuesday in a dramatic and agonisingly close four-way photo finish.

Barely a hair separated Bennett, Phil Bauhaus (Sunweb), Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal), and Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) as they hit the line in Münster, with Bennett managing to throw his bike and nudge his wheel across the tape by the narrowest of margins. Bauhaus was given second place, and Greipel third, while Kittel missed out on the podium places. 

Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) finished fifth but in the slipstream of the others, who crossed the line four abreast. 

The German race was always likely to culminate in a bunch sprint, with only the most minor of hills on the 198km route. The peloton would make its way north before embarking on three laps of a 5km finishing circuit in Münster. 

A four-man breakaway went clear in the early stages, containing Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin), Luca Henn (Lotto-Kern Haus), Etienne Van Empel (Roompot), and Carl Soballa (LKT-Brandenburg). They opened up a maximum advantage of three minutes but there was never any pressure on the peloton. 

The gap came down to below a minute with just over 30km remaining, whereupon Martin and Soballa waved goodbye to their other two companions and tried to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. The game was up, and the race all together again, with just under 20km to go and the local laps about to begin. 

From there it was all about the build-up to the sprint, with no shortage of top-quality names, and Bennett pinched it to claim his sixth victory of the season. 

Full Results