Kevin Vermaerke sprints third at summit finish in Winterberg

After yesterday’s attacking first road stage, the queen stage of this year’s edition of the Deutschland Tour was on the menu today. The peloton faced a long and hilly 201 kilometres from Kassel to the summit finish in Winterberg, with some heavy rain making it a less enjoyable day on the bike. With only two riders forming the breakaway of the day, the pace in the peloton was relatively easy and the duo got a maximum gap of more than nine minutes. The peloton slowly brought back the break, as we stayed close towards the front where Patrick Eddy did a nice job keeping everyone in position. When entering the final 25 kilometres, the breakaway was caught and the peloton got smaller and smaller as the road started rising. Frank van den Broek and Florian Stork were sharp on covering the attacks going in the final part of the day. Florian and a companion got a reasonable gap of 30 seconds going into the hard final five kilometres, where he ultimately had to let Mühlberger go. In the small bunch, Kevin Vermaerke was brought into position for the final push to the line and sprinted second from the group and third on the day. This was a nice reward for the whole team after showing an attacking mindset in the final. Kevin now sits in fourth position in the general classification, with two more stages to go.

Kevin Vermaerke said after the finish: “Today was on paper the hardest finish of the week, but it wasn’t such a hard stage before. The hardest part was really the rain that followed us the whole day. I had the white jersey today so we kept a good position during the day and came through the race in a good way. The boys did a super good job to keep me up at the front and I could snatch some bonus seconds on the second last climb. Florian then got in a really good move after that and they got 30 seconds in the descent so Frank and I could really just stay calm in the back and cover any moves. Coming into the final, I just followed wheels on the last climb, felt good in the sprint and came second from the bunch and third with one guy staying ahead of the group. I grabbed a few bonus seconds but there were no real gaps for the GC. We will try to go for more stage results and try to move up in the GC the next days.“

Team dsm-firmenich coach Pim Ligthart added: “Today was again a good day for us. The boys committed to the plan we had with Florian following the moves and Kevin sprinting two times to second place – at the bonus sprint and from the bunch at the finish. Of course, we would have loved Florian to win today, but we are also happy with how the team rode today and the shape Kevin is showing.“