Jhonatan Narvaez punishes early celebration from Riley Sheehan to win dramatic Deutschland Tour stage 2

On a chaotic day of racing at the 2025 Deutschland Tour, Jhonatan Narvaez punished some early celebration from Riley Sheehan to take the stage 2 win in dramatic circumstances.

The racing unfolded aggressively from the start, with a five-man break establishing itself early. Vincent Bodet, Emils Liepins, Vinzent Dorn, Jonas Rutsch and Miguel Heidemann opened a gap on the peloton, while Léo Bouvier attempted a solo chase but was eventually reeled back in. By the time the break’s advantage reached around three minutes, Bouvier had abandoned his pursuit.

UAE star Jhonatan Narváez then launched a daring attack on a climb, hoping to bridge to the leaders. His move, however, was short-lived, as the peloton caught him and reduced the gap to the break to roughly two and a half minutes.

As the race approached the 95-kilometre mark, the break’s advantage stalled at around two minutes, with Lidl-Trek and Jumbo-Visma controlling the peloton to protect their leaders, Milan and Brennan. By 70 kilometres to go, the gap had narrowed to approximately 1:25, with the break still holding on.

The stage saw further drama when Brandon McNulty crashed and had to change bikes, though he appeared uninjured. Meanwhile, Will Barta launched a counter-attack from the peloton, attempting a solo move to bridge to the leaders as the stage continued to unfold.

With 35 kilometres to go, only three riders remained in the break – Bodet, Liepins and Rutsch – and the gap was down to just over a minute as Ineos and Visma increased the tempo. Ten kilometres later, Rutsch was the sole survivor, with his companions dropped, and the peloton only 50 seconds behind.

By the 15-kilometre mark, Rutsch had finally been caught, and the peloton was back together heading into the rolling terrain of the finale. Attacks began to fly on the late climbs, and with 10 kilometres to go, the race had fractured into multiple groups.

Inside the final five kilometres, Narváez once again forced the issue, going clear alongside Soren Waerenskjold and Riley Sheehan. The Ecuadorian champion led the move, with Marius Mayrhofer attempting to bridge just a few seconds behind, while Jonathan Milan, Danny van Poppel, Jan Christen, Matthew Brennan, Ilan Van Wilder, Pascal Eenkhoorn and Iván Romeo were also part of a chasing group hovering around 10 seconds down. The peloton trailed by half a minute, setting up a thrilling finale in the run-in to the line.

As the leading trio entered the final kilometre still in the clear lead, it was a three-up sprint that looked like deciding the day. Sheehan was the first to make a move and even started to celebrate but as he raised his arms, Narvaez got him at the line to take victory.