Alexander Kristoff was runner-up of the German one-day race World Tour Vattenfall Cyclassic held today in Hamburg.  The captain of Team Katusha won the race last year and was second in the 2015 edition, coming in behind German Andre Greipel of Team Lotto Soudal.  Third place went to Italian Giacomo Nizzolo of Trek Factory Racing.

“Of course I am a little disappointed as I just missed half a wheel, and also as the team did such a wonderful job and made a good lead out. If there would have been more head wind, I could have won, but that is not so important. Greipel was strong the whole summer and we’ve seen him beat me more often this year,” said Alexander Kristoff.

“Greipel came from Alex’s rear wheel. That was smart and well done. Our team did everything we could do and I am proud of our team. The guys were amazing, really fantastic and worked so well as a unit.  We took the race in hand and had a perfect lead out the last two kilometers,” said team director Torsten Schmidt.

“Jacopo Guarnieri took over from Marco Haller at 600-700 meters from the finish. It was crazy fast and at 200 meters it was up to me. I had good legs and went faster and faster. But at 50-60 meters from the finish Greipel passed me. I tried not to let him pass but he was faster. In the end it was just him and me and no one else and I missed half a meter. Next week in Plouay, on a harder circuit, we will try again,” said Alexander Kristoff.

At a length of 221,3km, the race was marked by a large number of attacks, especially in the final 20 km of the course.  However, the efforts from Katusha, as well as other teams, neutralized all of the attacks setting up the sprint finish with the showdown between Kristoff and Greipel. 

Katusha scored 60 UCI points and maintains third place in the global ranking of teams, moving closer to both Sky and Movistar.