Prologue winner Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) led the bunch sprint across the line in Heilbronn and won the first road stage of the Deutschland Tour.
Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) secured second ahead of Max Kanter (Astana Qazaqstan), in third, and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) in fourth.
Milan extended his GC lead with the victory, now nine seconds ahead of Meeus and 11 seconds ahead of Lidl-Trek teammate Mads Pedersen. Meeus took the points classification lead.
The early breakaway didn’t escape until after the first intermediate sprint, the race having entered Bavaria with 100km to go, and the three German riders built a lead of over 2 minutes - Anton Lennemann (Bike Aid) and Lotto Kern-Haus PSD Bank teammates Nick Bangert and Ben Felix Jochum.
Bangert had a special interest in the finish, as he was the only rider in the peloton born in Heilbronn, but Lidl-Trek was on familiar turf and was eager to take centre stage instead. Bangert attacked from the breakaway with 29km to go, headed to the last climb of the day, Jägerhaus (1.5km à 8%), but he could not hold off the WorldTour teams and his ride faded with 15km to go.
From there several attacks ensued and Lidl-Trek reeled them all back to set up the final sprint for Milan.
"I’m really happy the team gave 100% at the end of this race where it was quite tricky with a few attacks," Milan said.
"It was tough to get over this climb [Jägerhaus], to stay with the first group, but I managed it well with Daan [Hoole], Alex [Kirsch] and Toms [Skujiņš], and in the end with Mads [Pedersen]. It was a special, special victory for us. It’s like our hometown, it’s super special to win here."
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