PREVIEW & FAVOURITES | Deutschland Tour 2025 stage 2 - Can Visma's supertalent Brennan win queen stage?

From the 20th to the 24th of August the German calendar continues, this time around with the country's most important stage-race of the year: The Deutschland Tour. We preview stage 2.

Stage 2 of the race can be termed the queen stage, a day for the classics specialists. The 189 kilometers between Herford and Neheim will have no long climbs but many short and punchy ascents where it's possible to make the difference and make the race very tactical.

From 65 to 31 kilometers to go there will be five small climbs where this action can take place, and a few groups may go up the road. Afterwards it's not pan-flat all the way to the finish but there is a bonus sprint at the top of a small hill where we may see some more attacks or sprints to obtain key seconds. This is indeed the most difficult stage of the race but you do wonder how much difference can actually be made. At the speed the modern peloton moves, very few riders will even want the little ring on such a stage.

The GC is fully open due to the minor gaps and so every second matters, whether it is on the bonus sprint or final one. But the sprinters have to be dropped and that will be hard, I see riders such as today's winner Matthew Brennan or Kaden Groves as the main favourites, whilst I wouldn't exclude Jonathan Milan from surviving these ascents still within a peloton.

*** Matthew Brennan, Kaden Groves
** Danny van Poppel, Jhonatan Narváez
* Wout van Aert, Jonathan Milan, Florian Lipowitz, Jan Christen, Brandon McNulty, Luke Lamperti, Soren Waerenskjold, Sam Watson, Emilien Jeannière

Pick: Matthew Brennan

How: Another victory but this time around with a smaller peloton.