Olav Kooij has won the BEMER Cyclassics. The Dutch rider from Visma | Lease a Bike was a step too big for Jonathan Milan and Biniam Girmay in the German one-day race around Hamburg. On the final day of the Vuelta a España, there were also many other interesting races planned, including the now well-known sprint classic in Hamburg.
Most of the top sprinters were present there, which resulted in a
very strong starting list and likely an exciting finale. From
Jasper Philipsen and
Tim Merlier to Jonathan Milan and Arnaud De Lie: they were all there in Northern Germany!
The sprint field was indeed impressive: Girmay won three stages and the green jersey in the Tour de France, Philipsen won three stages and Milan-Sanremo in that same race, Milan was dominant in the Giro with three stage wins and the points classification, and recently won a total of five times in the Tour of Germany (three) and Renewi (two). Merlier had already notched twelve victories in 2024 before the start (including three in the Giro), and Kooij showed form with two stage wins in the Tour of Poland.
Read more below the tweet.
Sprint of giants in Hamburg
Before it all began, nearly 200 kilometers in Northern Germany had to be covered. The riders started 45 minutes later than planned due to delays caused by two serious crashes in the amateur race on the same course. One rider was evacuated by helicopter. As a result, the course was shortened by 21 kilometers, so we would still arrive around 4:00 PM.
The day's breakaway consisted of six riders: Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty), Michael Mørkøv (Astana Qazaqstan), Stefan de Bod (EF Education-EasyPost), Rémi Cavagna (Movistar), Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R), and Cyrus Monk (Q36.5). They were allowed a maximum of eight minutes, with the major sprint teams in the peloton taking responsibility. Unfortunately, at this point, one top sprinter was already out of contention after Merlier was involved in a crash heading towards the first Waseberg and had to abandon.
On the second pass of the Waseberg, the breakaway was caught, and we saw a dangerous attack from Alex Aranburu and Jan Christen. They managed to stay together until the base of the final Waseberg, where Aranburu went solo. The Spanish champion from Movistar was caught with ten kilometers to go, and so it came down to a sprint. Kooij seemed set to win by bike lengths, but Milan came charging in hard. However, the Italian from
Lidl-Trek was just a bit too late.
Results BEMER Cyclassics Hamburg 2024
