Bora – Argon 18 finished the 20th anniversary edition of the Hamburg Cyclassics with mixed feelings. Firstly, Jan Barta made it into the group of the day that created a maximum lead of five minutes. But 65 kilometers before the finish, the four riders were caught again by the peloton and the race was then characterized by many attacks.

With 30 kilometers to go, team leader Sam Bennett was involved in a big crash. With Zak Dempster and Paul Voss, two other riders of Bora-Argon 18 hit the deck. At this point of the race, all three riders had no chance to catch up to the front again. So the original tactic that was focused on Sam Bennett needed to be changed. In the hectic finale, the remaining riders of the team prepared the sprint for Ralf Matzka, who finished in 16th place. Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) won the race.

"Today, we planned that Jan is part of the group of the day and then to focus on the final sprint with Sam. As a German team it’s important that we show ourselves actively at the German races and Jan did so very well. When the group was caught, there was a crash and Sam was also involved. From that moment all our plans were gone, because it wasn’t possible to come back again. Even though we've tried it. Therefore, we changed the tactics in the race and rode the sprint for Ralf. The guys have done a good job in the finale, they found theirselves and rode together at the front. But unfortunately a better result than the 16th place wasn’t in today", Andre Schulze comments the race.