Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla) chased back onto a five-rider breakaway inside of three kilometres to claim his first elite men’s road race title at the German Road Championships on Sunday.

Part of an elite five-rider lead group, which included Nico Denz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), Lennart Jasch (Tudor), Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and defending champion Georg Zimmermann (Lotto-Intermarché), Engelhardt dangled a few times off the back before losing touch with 10 kilometres to go. But the 25-year-old kept on chasing, reconnecting with less than three kilometres to go as the quintet raced towards the finish line in Bad Liebenstein.

Politt launched his sprint first as the five riders spread across the road in the final sprint, but Engelhardt came over the top to take the win, going one better than his second place in 2025 to Zimmermann. Jasch sprinted to second, and Denz took third.

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“It’s an incredible feeling. Everyone dreams of this. There’s nothing better than wearing the champion’s jersey, especially when heading to the most important race in the world: the Tour de France,” Engelhardt said in a team release.

“It was an amazing race. On the last lap, I was on the verge of cramping and lost contact. I rode the descent as hard as I could and managed to get back on, then gave it absolutely everything I had left in the sprint!”

Engelhardt will line up in his debut Tour de France in the national champion’s jersey next weekend.

How it unfolded

In hot temperatures, hovering around 35°C, the elite men’s field faced seven laps of the 27.3km circuit around the Thuringian Forest, starting and ending in Bad Liebenstein. Throughout the 191.1km race, riders were grabbing as many water bottles as they could to pour over their heads to try and cool down.

Though a breakaway escaped early, attacks from pre-race favourites Nils Politt and former road champion Maximilian Schachmann flew at the front of the field in the third lap, causing a re-shuffle in the lead group.

With 110 kilometres to go, eight riders, including Politt, Schachmann, Marco Brenner (Tudor), Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl-Trek) and Jonas Rutsch (Lotto-Intermarché) came together in the break, while behind the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe squad lined up the front of the peloton to close it down.

Down to four riders, Teutenberg, Schachman, Politt and Brenner, the break only had a 35-second lead on the dwindling peloton, 47 kilometres later.

With 37 kilometres to go, the much-reduced peloton reeled in the breakaway, and soon after, Lennard Kämna took a solo flyer. The Lidl-Trek rider still had 33 seconds as the bell rang for the final lap but he would soon be caught by a seven-rider chase group with 22 kilometres to go.

Under pressure from attacks, three riders fell off the pace, leaving Engelhart, Denz, Politt, Zimmermann and Jasch off the front with 11 kilometres to go.

After dangling a few times off the back, Engelhart lost touch one kilometre later, as Politt tried a few attacks but was not able to dislodge any of the other riders. Engelhart was able to catch back on, to deliver a surprise sprint victory ahead of Jasch and Denz. Politt was fourth, and Zimmermann took fifth.

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