Magnier Magnificent in Hamburg, Joining Star-Studded List of Sprinters

It’s a day for the young riders: just as AJ August did in the Czech Tour, Paul Magnier raced to his own career first in Germany at the ADAC Cyclassics Hamburg.

The Frenchman landed his first single-day WorldTour victory Sunday, overpowering Mike Teunissen (XDS Astana Team), Laurence Pithie (Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe) and over 30 others inside the final 500 meters of the German race.

It is the 31st win of his career and also his biggest one day performance to date.

“I’m proud to take my first victory in a World Tour one-day race,” the Soudal Quick-Step rider said. “I want to thank my team, they did an amazing job the whole day, bringing the escapees back and keeping it together by pulling hard so that no one attacked in the last part of the race.

“In the final kilometer, the guys put me in a perfect position from where I could launch my sprint.”

Magnier is in his third season as a pro and has quickly proven himself to be one of the most exciting sprinters in the sport. He’s averaging over ten wins per year thus far, with his seven victories this season likely to be followed by more in the remaining weeks.

Those successes include three stages in the 2026 Giro d’Italia, where he also took the points jersey.

Magnier is yet to ride the Tour de France but is likely to do so sooner rather than later.

His latest success plus his nationality only adds to the momentum propelling him towards that race.

Following on from some of the greats of the sport</h2

The ADAC Cyclassics began in Buxtehude and, just over 200km later, finished in Hamburg. It was a testing course with 1802 vertical meters, including five ascents of the steep Waseberg climb.

Six riders skedaddled early on, namely Visma-Lease a Bike’s Niklas Behrens and Loe Van Belle, plus Jonas Rutsch (Lotto-Intermarché), Filip Maciejuk (Movistar), Dries De Pooeter (Jayco-AlUla) and Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis).

De Pooeter’s teammate Michael Matthews crashed early on and had to retire, but Tour de France star Isaac Del Toro was more fortunate after his own fall and was able to continue.

The UAE Emirates-XRG rider put in a couple of big surges on the climb towards the end of the race but couldn’t break the elastic. The first of those accelerations helped bring an end to the breakaway and after that recapture, the sprinters’ teams worked hard to ensure that nobody else would open a lasting gap.

Magnier’s Soudal team did a lot of riding in the finale, as did Uno-X Mobility and Visma-Lease a Bike. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe swept through closer to the line but got swamped again, with Magnier clearly best in the sprint.

“It gives me great pleasure to win here in Hamburg, on a course that suited me and in a prestigious race where so many great sprinters have tasted success in the past three decades,” he said.

There is indeed a spectacular list of past sprint winners, including Erik Zabel, Johan Museeuw, Oscar Freire, Robbie McEwen, John Degenkolb, André Greipel, Alexander Kristoff, Caleb Ewan, Elia Viviani, Mads Pedersen and Olav Kooij.