Overview
- Felix Engelhardt secured the German national road race title and will start the Tour de France in the champion’s jersey after a surprise win on Sunday.
- He was dropped on the final climb, rode a high-risk descent to rejoin a leading group and then outsprinted Lennart Jasch to take the win despite near-cramping.
- The race was unusually hard at about 191 kilometres with nearly 4,000 metres of climbing and temperatures above 35°C, prompting organisers to remove formal feed zones and allow on-course handups.
- Lennart Jasch finished second and Nico Denz third while Nils Politt and defending champion Georg Zimmermann took fourth and fifth; several top Germans including Florian Lipowitz, John Degenkolb and Emanuel Buchmann did not start to preserve Tour form.
- Wearing the national jersey will raise Engelhardt’s profile at the Tour and the heat-affected championship is likely to intensify scrutiny of race-day safety decisions ahead of the race in Barcelona.