PREVIEW & FAVOURITES | Deutschland Tour 2025 stage 1 - Bunch sprint or can the likes of Van Aert and UAE explode the race?

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 1.

202 kilometers on the menu in this first road stage of the race, starting in Essen and with long flat roads to be tackled before the riders enter the most hilly section of the stage. However it's very difficult not to see a bunch sprint at the end of this stage, even if not all of the fast men will have the ability to arrive with their best legs to that point in the race.

There's a bonus sprint with 6 kilometers to go at the top of a small climb, not one where you can make serious differences, but we can see a few gaps that can be interesting for the outcome of the day. This could be a day with a few attacks because there are bonus seconds to be won and there are no stages in this race where you can make real differences just by power. So the likes of UAE and other teams that need the climbs to make an impact should use this day to try and create situations away from a bunch sprint.

But will the terrain be hard enough for that? Time will tell. If not there is a whole array of sprinters to battle it out for victory, and some of them can climb pretty well too. Soren Waerenskjold starts the day in the race lead but with a target on his back. Jonathan Milan could be the man to beat, but the likes of Kaden Groves, Jordi Meeus, or Visma duo of Matthew Brennan and Wout van Aert could all defeat him.

*** Jonathan Milan, Jordi Meeus
** Matthew Brennan, Kaden Groves, Soren Waerenskjold
* Danny van Poppel, Jhonatan Narváez, Wout van Aert, Luke Lamperti, Samuel Watson, Matis Louvel, Emillien Jeannière, Matteo Moschetti, Phil Bauhaus

Pick: Jonathan Milan

How: Regular bunch sprint.