German National Championships: Felix Engelhardt chases back onto break in final kilometres to win first elite men’s road title

In hot temperatures, hovering around 35°C, the elite men’s field faced seven laps of the 27.3km circuit around the Thuringian Forest, starting and ending in Bad Liebenstein. Throughout the 191.1km race, riders were grabbing as many water bottles as they could to pour over their heads to try and cool down.

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Though a breakaway escaped early, attacks from pre-race favourites Nils Politt and former road champion Maximilian Schachmann flew at the front of the field in the third lap, causing a re-shuffle in the lead group.

With 110 kilometres to go, eight riders, including Politt, Schachmann, Marco Brenner (Tudor), Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl-Trek) and Jonas Rutsch (Lotto-Intermarché) came together in the break, while behind the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe squad lined up the front of the peloton to close it down.

Down to four riders, Teutenberg, Schachman, Politt and Brenner, the break only had a 35-second lead on the dwindling peloton, 47 kilometres later.

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With 37 kilometres to go, the much-reduced peloton reeled in the breakaway, and soon after, Lennard Kämna took a solo flyer. The Lidl-Trek rider still had 33 seconds as the bell rang for the final lap but he would soon be caught by a seven-rider chase group with 22 kilometres to go.

Under pressure from attacks, three riders fell off the pace, leaving Engelhart, Denz, Politt, Zimmermann and Jasch off the front with 11 kilometres to go.

After dangling a few times off the back, Engelhart lost touch one kilometre later, as Politt tried a few attacks but was not able to dislodge any of the other riders. Engelhart was able to catch back on, to deliver a surprise sprint victory ahead of Jasch and Denz. Politt was fourth, and Zimmermann took fifth.