UPDATE: Matthew Brennan takes stage 1 win at Deutschland Tour 2025 after photo finish confusion

Jonathan Milan thought he had taken the win on stage 1 of the 2025 Deutschland Tour from a frantic bunch sprint finale that needed a photo finish to separate him from rival Matthew Brennan. After initally being awared the win though, the jury overturned the decision a short while later, giving Brennan victory

The stage began with a steady and controlled pace, as the peloton rolled out together without any early attacks. For the first part of the day, the bunch remained intact, maintaining an average speed of around 40 km/h as they covered ground toward the stage’s decisive moments.

Eventually, a breakaway of four riders managed to escape the peloton and build a significant lead. Andrew August, Vinzent Dorn, Miguel Heidemann, and Jon Knolle formed the group out front, and at one point, they extended their advantage to over three minutes.

As the race progressed and the kilometres ticked down, the peloton began to respond. With 75 kilometres remaining, the main bunch had noticeably increased the tempo, cutting the breakaway’s lead to under two minutes. The chase was on, with the sprinters’ teams likely starting to take an interest in reeling the quartet back in before the finish. With 30km to go, the gap was down to just 37 seconds but still the breakaway held onto the lead.

Dorn and Knolle proved the strongest of the quartet, lasting until 13km to go, but eventually they too were swallowed up by the bunch. From there, all eyes turned towards preparing for the bonus second sprint at around 6km to go. In that sprint, Wout van Aert took the maximum three bonus seconds ahead of Samuel Watson who bagged 2, and Riley Sheehan the 1 second.

After that, thoughts started to turn to the upcoming bunch sprint where not only the stage win but also the potential of the overall race lead hung in the balance. In the kick for the line, it was a photo finish between Matthew Brennan and Jonathan Milan with confusion ensuing.