Cycling: André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) successfully defended his title at the German Championships in Baunatal. After an exciting race, he prevailed against John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano). Third was Phil Bauhaus (Stölting), who was able to keep up just ahead of Alexander Krieger (Stuttgart).
A leading group of four broke away in the first lap. Philipp Zwingenberger (KED), Grischa Janorschke (Vorarlberg), Mario Vogt (rad-net Rose) and Nils Politt (Stölting) quickly gained a lead of 2:50 minutes. In the second lap, Arne Egner and Christian Mager, two other Stölting drivers, caught up with the leaders. The sextet then extended their lead to over five minutes.
In the eighth of twelve laps to be ridden, Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), one of the stars of German cycling, was at the top for the first time.
Martin later managed to catch up to the front. Together with Janorschke he was able to keep ahead of the approaching field until the last lap. In this, Giant-Shimano and NetApp-Endura set the pace.
But first it was Jens Voigt (Trek) who tried to break away together with Paul Martens (Belkin) and Linus Gerdemann (MTN Qhubeka). Their attack was nipped in the bud. Then Christian Knees (Sky) launched an attack before Paul Martens tried to go one better. After that, the field closed up for the last kilometer.
Here Marcel Sieberg launched his captain Greipel, who countered the attack by Degenkolb with 300 meters to go and finally won with a bike length advantage. Behind them, Bauhaus was able to hold on to third place, although it benefited from Krieger's fairness. The Stuttgart captain backed away as Bauhaus approached the left side of the gang to avoid falling. Henning Bommel (rad-net Rose) took fifth place.