Phil Bauhaus narrowly missed out on his first home win at this year's Deutschland Tour. The 29-year-old, who had caused a furore at the Tour de France with three podium places, sprinted across the finish line in Essen in fourth place on the third stage.
Deutschland Tour 2023: Zimmermann team-mate wins in Essen
Madis Mihkels from Estonia, teammate of Georg Zimmermann from Augsburg, surprisingly won after 173.8 kilometres ahead of Dutchman Danny van Poppel and Belgian Quinten Hermans. The Belgian Ilan van Wilder remains in the red jersey without losing any time and is therefore poised to win the Tour on Sunday.
In the overall standings, the Belgian is eleven seconds ahead of the Austrian Felix Großschartner. Nils Politt is 22 seconds behind in eighth place. "Now it's full throttle tomorrow and a minimum podium finish," Politt told ARD. "It was a super tough stage for us sprinters," added Bauhaus, adding: "I was good in the end. I think my speed was the best of all, but in the end I finished fourth."
Deutschland Tour 2023: Van Wilder wins the 1st stage
The 23-year-old van Wilder had won the first stage, finished fifth on the second and on Saturday he did not lose any time compared to the previous day. For van Wilder, winning the Tour would be his greatest career success to date.
The pros started in Arnsberg and rode the up-and-down course of the Sauerland region via Wuppertal to the Ruhr metropolis of Essen. But first there was a minute's silence in Arnsberg for the dead young Belgian rider Tijl De Decker, who was involved in a serious training accident in his home country of Belgium and later succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
Deutschland Tour 2023: Three-man breakaway group
Just under 20 kilometres after the start, three riders - including German pro Juri Hollmann - launched an attack and were in the lead for a while with a two-minute advantage. They also defended their lead over the 2.1 kilometre long and on average 6.6 per cent steep ramp to the Langenberg transmitter. However, they were caught by the peloton 71 kilometres before the finish.
The finale of the stage in Essen promised a bunch sprint. Pascal Ackermann and Phil Bauhaus were among the most promising candidates for a stage win from a German perspective. "I think this is a course that suits me perfectly. I definitely want to win today," Ackermann told ARD before the start. The 29-year-old is moving from the UAE team led by superstar Tadej Pogacar to the Israel - Premier Tech team for the new season.
The peloton remained closed for a long time before the 29-year-old Frenchman Anthony Turgis attacked 30 kilometres from the end, but was caught ten kilometres from the finish. Shortly afterwards, there was a crash involving the Spaniard Pello Bilbao, team-mate of Bauhaus, who was thrown back.
The final stage of the five-day tour is on the programme on Sunday. From the capital of Lower Saxony, Hanover, the riders have to master a mostly flat 175.6 kilometres to Bremen.
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