Deutschland Tour - Germany's only stage race of the men's elite with many side events: Jedermann Tour (age group race), „kinder Joy of Moving mini tour”, Ride Tour, Newcomer Tour and Expo Tour
The Deutschland Tour 2023 is coming to Hesse. The 2nd stage starts in Kassel on 25 August. The race will stretch from the big city in northern Hesse to Winterberg in the Sauerland region.
For the 120 professionals of the Deutschland Tour, the 2nd stage will start in the centre of Kassel. With a neutral start, i.e. slowly and very close to the Hessian cycling fans, they will be led out of the city centre towards Bad Wilhelmshöhe. The sharp start will take place in front of the Marstall building of Schloss Wilhelmshöhe - the prelude to a tough stage through northern Hesse into the Sauerland region.
The Sauerland region marks the halfway point of this year's Deutschland Tour. Winterberg completes the list of stage destinations in 2023. A challenging 2nd stage will come to an end in Winterberg on August 25. The route in the Sauerland is particularly suitable for the aggressive classic riders.
After the first two days of racing in the Saarland with many challenges, the highest point of the tour awaits in the Sauerland during the 2nd stage. The German pros in the peloton can show off their knowledge of the route on August 25. They were guests here at the last German Championships. Nils Politt, winner of the 2021 Deutschland Tour, won his first champion's jersey back then.
The 4th and last stage of the Deutschland Tour 2022 once again turned many things upside down. However, the top positions in the overall classification remained unchanged. Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) took 5th place in the final stage, running over 186.6 kilometers from Schiltach to Stuttgart – just to win the Deutschland Tour 2022. Even the day's victory could not push Peio Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), the overall second, further ahead. However, the Spaniard can console himself with the green jersey, which he took last minute from Norwegian Alexander Kristoff.
Bilbao said after his stage win: "Fighting for the overall classification was hard. But I felt I could fight for the stage win today. That worked out. That's why it was a good week for me in my first race in Germany. For sure I will come back."
Even more confident was Yates.“’Lucky’ is not the word I would use. This win really means a lot for me. We tried to control the race from the beginning, but it felt like everybody wanted to be in the break today. At one point it got tight, but we stayed calm, didn’t panic and came away with the win.”
Behind Yates and Bilbao there was movement in the overall standings. At the last moment, Ruben Almeida Guerreiro (EF Education - EasyPost) made it to the podium. He was helped by the bonus seconds he gained as second of the day at the finish and at the day's bonification sprint. Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux) moved to the 4th place in the GC by sprinting to third place in the final stage. On top of that, he won the white jersey of the best young rider like he did last year.