Ewan wins Cyclassics Hamburg after Bouhanni is relegated

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Caleb Ewan (Orica-BikeExchange) claimed the victory Sunday at the Cyclassics Hamburg after Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) was relegated for deviating from his line in the sprint finish.

The Australian sprinter finished ahead of John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) after Bouhanni's relegation.

"I'm really happy with the victory," Ewan said."It was a very fast and tough sprint. I had to deviate from my line a bit and it's always difficult to try and regain momentum after that.

"It's great to get a European win under my belt for this season," he said.

It was a wet day at the German race, and three crashes in the last 40km split the field, with Ewan getting tangled and needing a bike change.

"It was an eventful day all round after suffering a puncture and then crashing twice although fortunately I landed on my feet both times. The whole team did a fantastic job in getting me back into the bunch after the crashes and they really were superb today."

Caleb, Bouhanni and the rest of the fastmen almost lost their chance for the win when a breakaway of six riders, which had formed in the first hour of the race, nearly stuck their move to the line.

The breakaway had more than six minutes on the peloton after 80km of racing and with Lotto Soudal controlling the front of the chase. Toward the end of the day Dimension Data came forward to help, while Katusha and Trek-Segafredo fought for the front in the closing kilometres.

The escapees pressed the issue all the way to the final kilometre, however, before succumbing to the chase before another crash in the final 300 metres upset the apple cart once more.

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