Saturday, August 28, 2021
Leader in Germany Tour
Politt reaches for the coronation with a stage win
At the end of a self-sacrificing team effort, another German triumphs in the third stage across the country. With a lead of eight seconds, Nils Politt is now on the final stage – chased by his teammate.
Nils Politt spread his arms and patted himself vigorously on the chest. As with his coup at the Tour de France around seven weeks ago, the Cologne-based man celebrated a stage win at the Deutschland Tour and can now even dream of overall success. Politt single-handedly won the third stage on the third section after 193.8 kilometers from Ilmenau to Erlangen. The 27-year-old won with eleven seconds ahead of the Belgian Dylan Teuns and thus also took over the red jersey of the overall winner on the four-day tour of his homeland.
“Actually, I wanted to sprint for the bonus seconds. Suddenly there was a gap and then I was suddenly gone with Dylan. I’m of course super happy to win my second stage on the Germany Tour,” Politt told ZDF. With his runaway coup, the Bora-hansgrohe professional ousted his team-mate Pascal Ackermann at the top of the overall standings. As early as 2018 in Stuttgart, Politt was able to win a part of the day of the Deutschland Tour as an outlier. Former master André Greipel sprinted in third place ahead of Ackermann. John Degenkolb finished fifth, followed by British Tour de France record stage winner Mark Cavendish.
“We have now won two stages with Pascal and me, that is of course very good. We have to try somehow tomorrow to bring it home,” said Politt, who is eight seconds ahead of Ackermann before the final day. Third is ten seconds back Phil Bauhaus (Bocholt).
Buchmann as a pacemaker
For a long time, the stage, which was accompanied by changeable weather, was dominated by a top group of four drivers who had formed after the start in Ilmenau at the first mountain classification of the day on the Thuringian Rennsteig. The quartet, including Henri Uhlig from the German national team, fought bravely through the rain from Thuringia to Bavaria. Ultimately, however, they had nothing to counter the dictate of pace in the field.
Above all, the Tour de France fourth in 2019, Emanuel Buchmann, tensed in front of the field again and again when it was pouring rain, so as not to give the four outliers too much distance – which later pays off with the triumph of his team-mate Politt should do. So the escape for Uhlig and Co. came to an end around nine kilometers from the finish on the final lap in Erlangen. Shortly afterwards, a group around Politt tried to break away in the last intermediate sprint of the day – with success.
The final decision on the Germany tour, which was not held last year due to the corona pandemic, will be made tomorrow, Sunday, in Nuremberg. The fourth stage, which had previously started in Erlangen, ends there after 156.3 kilometers. Many rough climbs through Franconian Switzerland are waiting for Politt and his colleagues. In total, the professional cyclists will have covered 720.5 kilometers since the start in Stralsund.
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