Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) surged to victory at the ADAC Cyclassics Hamburg on Sunday, continuing his fine season with a convincing victory in the WorldTour-level one-day race.

The Frenchman, winner of three stages at this year’s Giro d’Italia, crossed the line with daylight between himself and the rest of the sprinting peloton, with Mike Teunissen (XDS Astana) taking second place and Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) grabbing the final spot on the podium.

The mixed bag of a top-10 was without a number of key contenders, including Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM), as a small group was cut off the back of the peloton on the final ascent of the punchy Waseberg climb.

The Waseberg – 700 metres long at an average gradient of 10% – was covered five times on the 205-kilometre route of the German Classic, inspiring attacks from the likes of Tour de France podium finisher Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

In fact, it was Del Toro’s acceleration on the final ascent with 16km to go – coupled with repeated digs on the flat from the Mexican – that saw some of those big-name sprinters tailed out of the running.

Magnier’s QuickStep came to the front just when it looked like the Milan/Kooij group was about to return inside the final 10km, and they went on to dominate the final three kilometres with two men in front of Magnier.

It wasn’t quite enough to provide a full lead-out, as last-man Jasper Stuyven had to pull aside with 500 metres to go, but Magnier was so good he didn’t need much help. As Red Bull swamped he calmly slotted in and found a way out, moving decisively clear in the final 150 metres and holding it all the way to the line.

“I’m super proud to take my first WorldTour one-day victory,” Magnier said. “I think I can really thank my team, every single rider worked really hard, and in the final team really put me in the perfect position and I could make a perfect sprint.

“We also knew the breakaway was really strong – we didn’t want it to happen like last year. Ayco [Bastiaens] and Yves Lampaert had to work really hard to bring everything back together. Then the whole lead-out train helped me to always survive this steep climb every loop. I also felt strong in the last lap to follow the move of Del Toro. I knew I had a really strong lead-out and was really confident in them and super proud to finish it off.”

How it unfolded

The 29th edition of Cyclassics Hamburg took the riders on a 205.3-kilometre route from Buxtehude to the Mönckebergstraße area of Hamburg, with five ascents of the Waseberg climb (700 meters at 10%) once again forming the key challenge of the course.

The racing was sparked into life by a six-man breakaway that featured Filip Maciejuk (Movistar), Jonas Rutsch (Lotto-Intermarché), Dries De Pooeter (Jayco-AlUla), Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), and the Visma-Lease a Bike duo of Niklas Behrens and Loe Van Belle.

They were kept on a relatively short leash, with the gap never growing out beyond five minutes.

The early phase of the race was marked by a couple of crashes, with Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and Mattia Agostinacchio (EF Education-EasyPost) forced to abandon, while Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) also hit the deck but was able to continue.

The first ascent of the Waseberg came after 90km and passed without much incident, with the riders going on to head through the finish line for the first time, at the halfway mark, with three minutes the gap.

The second ascent of the Waseberg with 75km to go saw the race light up courtesy of Benoit Cosnefroy (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), the French puncheur putting in a stinging attack that drew out Brandon Rivera (Netcompany-Ineos), Tim Rex (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Brent Van Moer (Pinarello-Q36.5).

On the finishing loop, covered twice, the Wasberg featured twice in the space of barely 10km, and by the time it was back around to the climb the Cosnefroy move was neutralised as Visma accelerated from behind.

The next move, coming amid a lull, was a double Vermeersch affair, with Florian of UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Gianni of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe going clear for several kilometres. However, beyond the penultimate passage of the finish line, which came with just over 50km to go, they were brought back to a peloton riding 1:25 behind the breakaway.

By the time they made it back out to the west of Hamburg for the final twin ascents of the Waseberg, the gap was down to one minute, and the break was soon down to four, as Thomas and Rutsch eased clear before the Visma duo of Behrens and Van Belle caught up.

Soon after, a key contender, Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling), was taken out of contention by a crash on a right-hand bend. Needing a new bike, at a time when UAE were kicking off the charge towards the final ascent of the Waseberg, it was effectively game over for the Eritrean.

The inevitable Del Toro attack – UAE didn’t possess a top-level sprinter – came on the final time up the steep climb, but the Mexican couldn’t get away. However, despite a large peloton still being in his wheel, his move had split things to the extent that some key rivals were put out of the picture.

Del Toro tried again once the final breakaway survivors, Thomas and Rutsch, had been brought to heel, but neither his nor others’ attempts to go clear in the finale paid off. Instead, Uno-X, QuickStep, and Visma combined to keep the pace high in the peloton in order to keep the frantically chasing Milan/Kooij group at bay.

QuickStep did just what they had to do, and little more, and that gave them a strong hand for the lead-out, which they dominated from around 3km out. They might have fallen a little short of giving Magnier the perfect magic carpet but the Frenchman was dropped off in a position from where he could make his superiority blindingly obvious.

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