Tour of Germany: Van Wilder takes overall victory - Bauhaus fails in the sprint

In the final act of the Deutschland Tour, it was once again not enough for a stage win from a German perspective. Sprinter Phil Bauhaus crossed the finish line on Sunday in a bunch sprint in second place behind Dutch rider Arvid De Kleijn.

Deutschland Tour 2023: Overall victory for Ilan van Wilder

In the Hanseatic city of Bremen, the Belgian Ilan van Wilder was the main celebrator after 175.6 kilometres. The 23-year-old celebrated overall victory in the tour and thus achieved his greatest career success to date.

"It's a great feeling," van Wilder told ZDF and added: "I've achieved my first professional victory here and now my first overall victory - that's as good as it gets." He won by eleven seconds ahead of Austrian Felix Großschartner.

Politt best German driver

Nils Politt from the German team Bora-hansgrohe was the best German in ninth place. From a German perspective, it remains a sobering home tour - even though sprinter Bauhaus came second and crossed the finish line in fourth place in Essen on Saturday.

For Politt in seventh and Georg Zimmermann in eighth on stage two, for example, more could have been possible. Politt was mostly at the front, but he did not manage to give his team a premature farewell present before his move to the UAE team with superstar Tadej Pogacar for the new season.

Zimmermann, who narrowly missed out on a stage win at the Tour de France this year, has surprisingly remained in the background in recent days. Last year, the 25-year-old finished the "D-Tour" in fourth place, making him the best young rider.

Deutschland Tour 2023: Young riders put themselves in the spotlight

The organisers, on the other hand, were delighted with the large number of spectators at most of the stages. "There is a real appetite for cycling in Germany again," co-organiser Matthias Pietsch told ZDF. This is "very positive" for the future of the sport.

However, the Deutschland Tour had to do without the previously announced top stars Chris Froome - four-time Tour de France winner - and this year's Tour bronze medallist Adam Yates. As usual with smaller long-distance bike rides, young and promising riders put themselves in the spotlight. In addition to van Wilder, Madis Mihkels from Estonia caused a surprise with his victory after the bunch sprint on Saturday.

This realisation was also taken to heart by five young German riders from the second row, who surged ahead immediately after the start in the capital of Lower Saxony, Hanover, and in some cases built up a gap of more than four minutes to the peloton. The peloton only caught up with the group of Silas Köch, Jan-Marc Temmen, 18-year-old Vinzent Dorn, Tobias Nolde and Dominik Röber before the gates of Bremen. Nolde held out a little longer as a soloist.

Just under a kilometre before the finish, Arndt and Bauhaus took the lead. "This time we were a bit too early, so it was a bit too long for Nikias, my last rider," said Bauhaus.

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