Second day of the Deutschland Tour 2024, second victory for Jonathan Milan. After the opening prologue on Thursday, the Lidl-Trek sprinter also won the first stage in Heilbronn. There, the 23-year-old Italian came out on top ahead of Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Max Kanter (Astana Qazaqstan Team).
Milan got the sprint from his team-mate Mads Pedersen on the home straight in Heilbronn in exemplary fashion. None of his rivals even came close to the Italian.
Five Germans in the top 10 of the day
With Henri Uhlig (Alpecin-Deceuninck/fifth place), Niklas Märkl (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL/seventh place), Tobias Müller (German national team/ninth place) and Joshua Huppertz (Team Lotto Kern-Haus PSD Bank/tenth place), four more German riders made it into the top 10 of the day.
Milan extended his lead in the battle for the overall leader's blue jersey with victory in Heilbronn. Second is Jordi Meeus from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, best German Jannik Steimle (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) in seventh, 15 seconds behind.
Deutschland Tour 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 1
- Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) 4:16:17
- Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:00
- Max Kanter (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:00
- Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) +0:00
- Henri Uhlig (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0:00
- Emilien Jeanniere (TotalEnergies) +0:00
- Niklas Märkl (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:00
- Matevz Govekar (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00
- Tobias Müller (German national team) +0:00
- Joshua Hupertz (Team Lotto Kern-Haus PSD Bank) +0:00
The overall standings
- Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) 4:19:23
- Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:09
- Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) +0:11
- Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:13
- Stefan Bissegger (EF Education EasyPost) +0:13
- Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:14
- Jannik Steimle (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) +0:15
- Marco Haller (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:15
- Fabio Christen (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) +0:16
- Gil Gelders (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:16
How the first stage of the Deutschland Tour 2024 went
The German teams initially set the tone on stage 1. Anton Lennemann (Bike Aid), Nick Bangert and Mauro Brenner (both Lotto Kern-Haus PSD Bank) formed the breakaway group of the day, which at times pulled out a lead of around two minutes on the peloton. Lidl-Trek controlled the pace for overall leader Jonathan Milan.
The breakaway continued until the climb to Eberstadt, where Bangert broke away from his two companions, while Brenner and Lennemann were swallowed up by the peloton a few kilometres later. 16 kilometres before the finish, Bangert's breakaway attempt came to an end.
Attacks in the direction of the Jägerhaus
On the last climb of the day to the Jägerhaus, Team Visma | Lease a Bike seized the initiative and tore the peloton apart. After a counter-attack by Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious), six men briefly broke away, but were caught again. A trio then tried it: Archie Ryan (EF Education EasyPost), Thomas Gloag (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility). Johannessen took the three bonus seconds in the sprint ahead of Gloag and Ryan.
After that, everything came together again and the sprint in Heilbronn began. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) pulled it off perfectly for his team-mate Jonathan Milan. With his current top form, the winner of the prologue had no trouble keeping the other sprinters at bay and celebrated his second success at the Deutschland Tour 2024.
