A few weeks ago Nikias Arndt said that one of his big goals was to win a stage in his home race Bayern Rundfahrt. Yesterday he had his final chance in the sprint stage to Nürnberg but a failed lead-out saw him finish down in 8th.

Nikias Arndt has sprinted to eighth place on the fifth and final stage of the Bayern Rundfahrt in Nürnberg. The 159.6km stage came down to another bunch sprint, the third of the race, and Sam Bennett (NetApp – Endura) was the fastest to the line rounding out this five day German race.

The final stage of the race was a rolling parcours with 11 laps of a finish circuit to decide the final stage winner of the race. A nine man breakaway got clear and Team Giant-Shimano were not represented here, resulting in the team contributing to the chase in the second half of the stage.

The race eventually all came back together on the finishing circuits from which point in it was a fast finish for a bunch sprint. The team were riding for Arndt but after losing the wheel of lead-out man Reinardt Janse van Rensburg in the final, he could only manage eighth on the day.

Team Giant-Shimano coach, Lionel Marie said: “The team were strong on the whole today but at the end the sprint did not quite work out as we wanted – something to learn from.

“It has been a promising week and will be good preparation for Warren [Barguil] as he heads to Switzerland. Reinardt also showed his sprinting strength in taking second and there are several positives we can take away from their performance here.”