The Lotto-Belisol sprinter won the sprint after 6 laps of 37,5 km around Wangen im Allgäu for a total distance of 224 km. Greipel will now bring the white jersey with black-red-golden bands to the Tour de France, starting Saturday with a sprint stage in Corsica.

Despite what the result may lead you to think, it was not a typical mass sprint: As typical for a championship race, there were lots of attacks, with only 18 riders arriving together. Two laps before the finish, a front group of eight riders from Continental teams had 3:30 on the main peloton, but then the big teams started chasing in earnest. And at the same time, the rain began to fall.

At the start of the last lap, only four of the escapees were still holding on, 1:47 ahead of the roaring bunch: Andreas Schillinger (Nutrixxion-ABUS), Theo Reinhardt (Rad-Net Rose), Alexander Grad (Team Heizomat) and Thomas Koep (Team Stölting). These four had to give in one by one on the final 37,5 km, but the peloton fell apart as well, resulting in a 22-man front group with most of the favourites. Notable absentees were Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) and Danilo Hondo (RadioShack-Leopard).

Marcel Sieberg (Lotto-Belisol) was instrumental in keeping the group together, anticipating possible moves. Stefan Schumacher (Christina Watches-Onfone) attacked with about 6 km to go, but was caught after 2 km; and after that Sieberg pulled so hard on the last kilometres that he went off the front of the group for a while.

André Greipel was the big favourite for the sprint, and he didn’t disappoint, taking his first German title. MTN-Qhubeka’s Gerald Ciolek came second, John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) third; Marcel Meisen (BKCP-Powerplus), normally a cyclo-cross rider, took fourth place ahead of Paul Voß (NetApp-Endura).

Result:

1. André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) 5:17:03

2. Gerald Ciolek (MTN-Qhubeka)

3. John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano)

4. Marcel Meisen (BKCP-Powerplus)

5. Paul Voß (NetApp-Endura)

6. Stefan Schumacher (Christina Watches-Onfone)

7. Silvio Herklotz (Team Stölting)

8. Paul Martens (Blanco Pro Cycling)

9. Raphael Freienstein (Team Heizomat)

10. Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing Team)