Van Wilder gets the overall victory
Sobering home tour for German stars
08/27/2023, 6:20 p.m
Ilan van Wilder crowns his good tour of Germany with overall victory. It is the Belgian’s greatest career success to date. In the end, a German professional ends up on the podium in Bremen. Nevertheless, it remains a sobering home tour from a German point of view.
At the end of the Deutschland Tour, from a German point of view, it was again not enough to win the day. Sprinter Phil Bauhaus crossed the finish line in a mass sprint in second place behind Arvid De Kleijn from the Netherlands. In Bremen, the Belgian Ilan van Wilder celebrated the most after 175.6 kilometers. The 23-year-old celebrated overall victory in the tour and achieved his greatest career success to date. “It’s a great feeling,” said van Wilder to ZDF: “I’ve achieved my first professional victory here and now my first overall victory – that’s all I can do.” Eleven seconds behind, he won ahead of Austrian Felix Großschartner.
Nils Politt from the German team Bora-hansgrohe was the best German in ninth place. From a German point of view, it remains a sobering home tour – even if Sprinter Bauhaus finished second and crossed the finish line in fourth place on Saturday in Essen. For Politt as seventh and Georg Zimmermann as eighth on stage two, there could have been more. Politt was mostly at the front, but he didn’t manage to give his team an early farewell gift before he switched to the UAE team around superstar Tadej Pogacar for the new season.
“Really great desire for cycling in Germany”
Zimmermann, who narrowly missed out on a stage win in the Tour de France this year, has surprisingly stayed in the background over the past few days. Last year, the 25-year-old finished fourth in the “D-Tour” and was the best young driver. The organizers, on the other hand, were happy about the large number of spectators during most of the stages. “There is a great desire for cycling in Germany again,” said co-organizer Matthias Pietsch to 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 Adam Yates, who came third in this year’s tour. As usual with smaller long-distance bike rides, young and promising riders put themselves in the shop window. Alongside van Wilder, Madis Mihkels of Estonia caused an upset by winning after the bunch sprint on Saturday.
Five young German drivers from the second row also took this knowledge to heart on Sunday, who rushed forward right after the start in the Lower Saxony capital of Hanover and at times built up a distance of more than four minutes to the main field. The peloton caught up with the group around Silas Köch, Jan-Marc Temmen, 18-year-old Vinzent Dorn, Tobias Nolde and Dominik Röber just before the gates of Bremen. Nolde lasted a little longer as a soloist. With just under a kilometer to go, 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 driver,” said Bauhaus.