Cycling: Norway's Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) has struck again in the Vattenfall Cyclassics, adding another important win of the season to his impressive palmarès. With a long, powerful sprint, he prevailed against the Italian Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) and the Australian Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge).
The cycling classic on the Alster was initially characterized by a three-man lead group, in which two German drivers were represented with Björn Thurau (Europcar) and Ralf Matzka (NetApp-Endura). The trio broke away from the field early and held a lead of more than three minutes for a long time. However, the escape was over just 20 kilometers from the finish.
On the descent from the Waseberg, individual riders kept trying to break away from the field, the most well-known of whom was Jack Bauer from New Zealand (Garmin-Sharp). But even their escape attempts were doomed to fail.
In the final, the sprinter teams took the lead in the field and kept up the pace. On the home straight, it was Kristoff who surprised his rivals with an early start. The best German in sixth place was Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano), who had problems during the last crossing at the Waseberg. André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) fell a few kilometers before the finish line and therefore had no chance in the final.