This is one man’s race to lose: Zepuntke is the runaway favorite.
And could this be the way to lose it? On the second of four cobblestone sectors, Zepuntke has a puncture!
A few riders try to take advantage, and on the third sector, Heinrich, Uhlig and Bauhaus have a gap, Dressler is in pursuit. Zepuntke has slowly made his way back to the front of the peloton, can he bring them back? He has no (professional) teammates to help him.
Coming out of the sector, Zepuntke bridged the gap and he’s brought Meiler with him. Immediately, Heinrich attacks again.
It was a decent effort, but he was caught on the final cobbles stretch. Zepuntke then took to the front and managed to drop most of the other riders, but not all! Meiler and Uhlig hung on. Zepuntke is still the favorite in a sprint, but this is trickier than he probably would’ve liked.
Zepuntke opens the sprint with his two companions in his slipstream. Can one of them pull off the upset?
If the race was maybe 10 meters longer, Meiler would’ve done it, as he was much quicker in the end. But by the skin of his teeth, Zepuntke hangs on and is the new German Champion!
Result
1
Ruben Zepuntke
Ekoi - Le Creuset
1h05'17
2
Lukas Meiler
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
s.t.
3
Henri Uhlig
Jura GIANTS
s.t.
4
Luca Dressler
Minions
+ 56
5
Maurice Ballerstedt
Specialized
s.t.
6
Phil Bauhaus
Evonik - ELKO
s.t.
7
Domenic Weinstein
Euskotren - Pays Basque
s.t.
8
Nicolas Heinrich
DeNA Roadstars
s.t.
9
Willi Willwohl
Duvel-Tsingtao
+ 1'51
10
Nico Denz
Fastned
s.t.
11
Jan Brockhoff
Polar
+ 2'20
12
Jason Osborne
Jura GIANTS
s.t.
13
Pascal Ackermann
Cedevita
s.t.
14
Marius Mayrhofer
DeNA Roadstars
+ 2'44
15
Nikias Arndt
Evonik - ELKO
+ 3'47
16
Kevin Predatsch
Minions
s.t.
17
Ben Zwiehoff
Indosat Ooredoo
+ 4'53
18
Nils Politt
Euskotren - Pays Basque
s.t.
19
Aaron Grosser
Everesting
+ 5'40
20
Mario Vogt
Peugeot - Bancolombia
+ 6'57
21
Yuriy Vasyliv
Lotto-Caloi
s.t.
22
Emanuel Buchmann
Team UBS
s.t.
23
Ole Theiler
DeNA Roadstars
s.t.
28
Justin Wolf
McCormick Pro Cycling
s.t.
41
Florian Lipowitz
DeNA Roadstars
s.t.
101
Michel Hessmann
Fastned
s.t.
142
Jan Dieteren
Euskotren - Pays Basque
+ 16'04
143
Marco Brenner
Specialized
+ 18'49
144
Nils Schomber
Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh
+ 26'24
.
French National Championships
--
Time Trial
In the absence of the likes of Kämna or Sütterlin, there’s one clear favorite in the TT, too. But Politt can’t feel completely safe either, with some hopeful challengers.
Predatsch is the first of them, his time of 1h05’20 is the measuring stick for the remaining three riders.
Wolf misses it by a single second!
Then comes Hessmann, who may feel the pressure of Politt behind him, and he doesn’t quite rise to the occasion: Half a minute behind Predatsch, that’s not even Top 5 on the day.
Only Politt remains on the road, and he lives up to his status: Almost a minute faster than everyone else, he secures the title!
German National Championships 
French National Championships 
