Deutschland Tour: Ganna shines in Weimar - Politt third
DPA
· 24.08.2022
Nils Politt threw himself into the finish with his last ounce of strength and shook his head slightly disappointed as he looked at the scoreboard.
Politt finishes third in the Tour of Germany prologue
The defending champion was only beaten by the victorious time trial world champion Filippo Ganna and the Dutchman Bauke Mollema at the start of the Tour of Germany in the cultural city of Weimar. Politt was just three seconds off first place.
"It was extremely difficult. It was three minutes of full-on smashing in the face. That hurt," said Politt after the 2.6 kilometres of hard racing in the city of Goethe. As last year's winner, the man from Cologne was the last rider to roll off the ramp with start number one. "It was special to start the race with start number one. I wanted to get to the front and I managed to do that."
Politt wants the red jersey
Over the next two days, Politt has a good chance of conquering the red jersey of the race leader. He has the support of his team Bora-hansgrohe. "He will have a free role in the first few days and we want to organise the race offensively because we don't have a sprinter with us," said sport director Rolf Aldag.
As expected, Emanuel Buchmann played no part in the battle for the stage win. The tour specialist lost 17 seconds to the leader Ganna, but is still one of the favourites for the overall victory. "That was quite good by my standards. It's not my speciality. I'm more focussed on the mountain finish," said Buchmann. Simon Geschke, who finished in 91st place, is also looking ahead to that. The 36-year-old had crashed in the morning before the prologue, but only suffered abrasions on his left arm.
Bernal back on board
Former Tour winner Egan Bernal finished in 73rd place at the same time as Buchmann. 25-year-old Bernal is using the race to collect more race kilometres. Bernal had crashed heavily in training in January and suffered over 20 broken bones. Last week, he completed the Tour of Denmark, his first race after the accident.
For Phil Bauhaus had already finished the tour before the start. The sprinter tested positive for coronavirus just a few hours before the prologue. As his team Bahrain-Victorious announced, all other riders and team members tested negative. Due to the short distance, sprinters like Bauhaus were also expected to finish well.
Queen's stage up the Schauinsland
This year's Tour of Germany takes five days and 710 kilometres from Weimar to Stuttgart. The queen stage starts on Saturday in Freiburg and ends on the Schauinsland, which is over 1200 metres high. The first stage on Thursday leads within Thuringia over 171.7 kilometres from Weimar to Meiningen.
With the extension of the race by one day, the fourth edition of the tour after its reintroduction takes a step towards the one-week version that was held from 1999 to 2008. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the establishment of the race took place under difficult conditions. "In the meantime, the response is getting better and better and cities and municipalities are approaching us and want to be part of the tour," said sports director Fabian Wegmann to "t-online.de".
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