Mads Pedersen rode a sensational final kilometre to take victory at the BEMER Cyclassics.
The Dane took drastic action when it looked as though the three-man breakaway of Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Yves Lampaert (Soudal-QuickStep) might survive to the finish, attacking out of the bunch several hundred metres from the line, then coming past them with his last ounce of strength to take victory.
Danny van Poppel (BORA-hansgrohe) finished fast from the peloton to take second, but not quite fast enough to edge Pedersen, while Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) was third.
Pedersen and the other sprinters’ hopes were plunged into doubt when McNulty and Politt broke clear from the peloton 13km from the finish, especially when they were joined by Lampaert shortly after to form a very powerful trio.
Their lead hovered around ten seconds, and they still held an advantage going into the final kilometre after some clever blocking tactics from Politt’s teammate and defending champion Marco Haller around the tight corners in the city of Hamburg.
“The three guys still had a gap with 1km to go,” explained Pedersen when asked about what inspired his race-winning move. “I just tried to jump across as I was not sure we would catch them in the sprint. I was just going all-out and didn’t know what was happening from behind. Danny [Van Poppel] came pretty fast in the end, but luckily it was enough to take the victory.”
Pedersen one-by-one used the slipstream of Politt, then Lampaert, then MacNulty, who had himself attacked the other two inside the final kilometre. He then just about had the strength to haul a big gear past MacNulty, but was so exhausted by the finish that he crossed the line seated in the saddle.
For a moment it looked as though he might have celebrated prematurely, so rapidly was Van Poppel closing down on him, but the photo finish confirmed the Dane as the winner.
Earlier in the day, UAE Team Emirates animated the race on the run-in to the final climb of the Waseberg, with Diego Ulissi and Marc Hirschi going clear with Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) and Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech).
After that attack was neutralised, UAE once again instigated the next move with MacNulty and Politt attacking with what was so nearly the race-winning attack.
Pedersen was helped when the peloton reformed behind the breakaway trio, and his Lidl-Trek teammates were instrumental in bringing the break back, along with Jumbo-Visma and Jayco-AlUla.
The victory continues what has been a brilliant run of form for Pedersen since the Tour de France, which has seen him win the overall classification at the Tour of Denmark with a time trial win and four top-five finishes, and place fourth at the World Championships road race in Glasgow.
“I wouldn’t say I’m unbeatable, but the shape is good. We planned the whole Tour to have good shape for the World Championships, and that’s what we are carrying on now. We will see how long it’s lasting.
“From now on we don’t know when the line will break, so we’ll try to get the most out of it until I pop.”
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