2021 Eschborn-Frankfurt:
Rund um den Finanzplatz (WorldTour), Germany
59th Edition: Sunday, September 19, 2021
Eschborn-Frankfurt podium history | 2019 edition (race not run in 2020) | 2022 edition
Eschborn - Frankfurt, 187.5 km
Jasper Philipsen wins in Frankfurt.
Weather at the finish city of Frankfurt at 2:20 PM, local time: 19C (66F), mostly cloudy, with the wind from the northeast at 13 km/hr (7 mph). There is a 1% chance of rain.
The race: Here's the race organizer's summary.
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) has won the 60th edition of Eschborn-Frankfurt. On his debut in the German Classic, the 23-year-old Belgian relegated local hero and 2011 winner, John Degenkolb (Lotto Soudal), and record winner Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) to the podium places. After 187.4 kilometers the youngster secured his first victory in a WorldTour classic and set the next exclamation mark in his outstanding season. Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe), the last winner in Frankfurt, sprinted to 5th place.
Jasper Philipsen after his victory: "It was a really hard race. A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to do this race because it's typically a sprint finish. Then I looked into the profile and thought it might be harder than expected. So now I'm super proud with this victory. The team support was key today because I was really struggling in the middle part. On the climbs the team just stayed with me and that was important. I kept pushing because I knew that the last 40km were flat. I was able to recover and could do my sprint."
Local hero John Degenkolb said of his second place: "300 meters from the finish I thought all or nothing! I went all in. In the end it is a deserved victory for Jasper because he had an incredible speed. I am happy that it was enough for 2nd place and can now also be happy about it. I am proud that I withstood the pressure and was in the mix for victory in such a big race. Now I'm looking forward to the next races!"
The 60th edition kept its promise: attacks made the sprinters' life hard
The attacks began shortly after the real start in Eschborn and five riders formed a first breakaway. With Mathias Jorgensen (Movistar Team) and Luke Durbridge (Team BikeExchange) two WorldTour riders were represented. Simone Velasco (Gazprom-RusVelo), Erik Resell (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) and Boris Vallee (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) joined them. Up until the first ascent of the day on the Feldberg, the field was more than six minutes behind.
After 100 kilometers in the race, only the two WorldTour riders and Velasco remained in the lead - but the gap fell close to the minute mark. Even if the favorites of the race came closer, the time in front was worth it for the rider of the Gazprom-RusVelo team: The Italian won seven out of eight mountain classifications and took the mountain trophy on the podium after the race.
And it was this penultimate passage of the Mammolshainer stitch that turned out to be the preliminary decision of the race. Tightening the pace by the BikeExchange team meant that the outliers were caught and the peloton split up. 16 drivers went together for the last crossing of the Mammolshainer Berg - 40 seconds before the field.
On the last kilometers of the race, which led to downtown Frankfurt, UAE Team Emirates did the chasing for Kristoff. With 30 kilometers to go the front group was caught, and only Georg Zimmermann (Intermarche - Wanty Gobert Materiaux), winner of the white jersey at the Deutschland Tour, and Cristian Scaroni (Gazprom-RusVelo) resisted. After entering the finish lap, Bora-hansgrohe and defending champion Ackermann took over the chase. But the duo in front kept their lead and were able to enjoy the cheers of the visitors when they crossed the finish line at the Alte Oper for the first time. Only with nine kilometers to go, they were caught by the sprinters' field. It was Degenkolb who was the first to play his cards on the last kilometer. He opened the sprint, but in the last few meters Philipsen showed his strength.
Complete results:
187.5 kilometers raced at an average speed of 41.970 km/hr
| 1 | Jasper Philipsen | Alpecin-Fenix | 4hr 28min 3sec |
| 2 | John Degenkolb | Lotto Soudal | s.t. |
| 3 | Alexander Kristoff | UAE Team Emirates | s.t. |
| 4 | Andrea Pasqualon | Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert | s.t. |
| 5 | Pascal Ackermann | Bora-hansgrohe | s.t. |
| 6 | Ivan Garcia | Movistar | s.t. |
| 7 | Christophe Laporte | Cofidis | s.t. |
| 8 | Mike Teunissen | Jumbo-Visma | s.t. |
| 9 | Michael Matthews | Team BikeExchange | s.t. |
| 10 | Fred Wright | Bahrain Victorious | s.t. |
| 11 | Anders Skaarseth | Uno-X | s.t. |
| 12 | Cédric Beullens | Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise | s.t. |
| 13 | Connor Swift | Arkéa-Samsic | s.t. |
| 14 | Aaron van Poucke | Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise | s.t. |
| 15 | Maxime Chevalier | B&B Hotels | s.t. |
| 16 | Cyril Gautier | B&B Hotels | s.t. |
| 17 | Damien Touze | Ag2r-Citroën | s.t. |
| 18 | Greg Van Avermaet | Ag2r-Citroën | s.t. |
| 19 | Lorenzo Rota | Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert | s.t. |
| 20 | Omer Goldstein | Israel Start-Up Nation | s.t. |
| 21 | Quentin Pacher | B&B Hotels | s.t. |
| 22 | Niklas Eg | Trek-Segafredo | s.t. |
| 23 | Gianluca Brambilla | Trek-Segafredo | s.t. |
| 24 | Maxime Bouet | Arkéa-Samsic | s.t. |
| 25 | Clement Berthet | Ag2r-Citroën | s.t. |
| 26 | Lluis Mas | Movistar | s.t. |
| 27 | Ben Hermans | Israel Start-Up Nation | s.t. |
| 28 | Simone Velasco | Gazprom-RusVelo | s.t. |
| 29 | Nico Denz | Team DSM | s.t. |
| 30 | Michael Schar | Ag2r-Citroën | s.t. |
| 31 | Antonio Tiberi | Trek-Segafredo | s.t. |
| 32 | Rui Oliveira | UAE Team Emirates | s.t. |
| 33 | Odd Christian Eiking | Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert | s.t. |
| 34 | Philippe Gilbert | Lotto Soudal | s.t. |
| 35 | Reto Hollenstein | Israel Start-Up Nation | s.t. |
| 36 | Marco Haller | Bahrain Victorious | s.t. |
| 37 | Kevin Vermaerke | Team DSM | s.t. |
| 38 | Sam Oomen | Jumbo-Visma | s.t. |
| 39 | Markus Hoelgaard | Uno-X | s.t. |
| 40 | Alexander Krieger | Alpecin-Fenix | s.t. |
| 41 | Morten Hulgaard | Uno-X | s.t. |
| 42 | Sergey Chernetskiy | Gazprom-RusVelo | s.t. |
| 43 | Vincenzo Nibali | Trek-Segafredo | s.t. |
| 44 | Jaakko Hanninen | Ag2r-Citroën | s.t. |
| 45 | Christoph Pfingsten | Jumbo-Visma | s.t. |
| 46 | Silvan Dillier | Alpecin-Fenix | s.t. |
| 47 | Cristian Munoz | UAE Team Emirates | s.t. |
| 48 | Artem Nych | Gazprom-RusVelo | s.t. |
| 49 | Dylan Teuns | Bahrain Victorious | s.t. |
| 50 | Georg Zimmermann | Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert | s.t. |
| 51 | Simon Geschke | Cofidis | @ 9sec |
| 52 | Nicolas Prodhomme | Ag2r-Citroën | s.t. |
| 53 | Luka Mezgec | Team BikeExchange | 0:11 |
| 54 | Sven Erik Bystrom | UAE Team Emirates | s.t. |
| 55 | Nathan van Hooydonck | Jumbo-Visma | s.t. |
| 56 | Eddy Fine | Cofidis | 0:15 |
| 57 | Patrick Konrad | Bora-hansgrohe | s.t. |
| 58 | Thomas Champion | Cofidis | s.t. |
| 59 | Nils Politt | Bora-hansgrohe | s.t. |
| 60 | Gijs Leemreize | Jumbo-Visma | 0:20 |
| 61 | Julien Bernard | Trek-Segafredo | s.t. |
| 62 | Pascal Eenkhoorn | Jumbo-Visma | s.t. |
| 63 | Tim Wellens | Lotto Soudal | 0:26 |
| 64 | Gonzalo Serrano | Movistar | s.t. |
| 65 | Robert Stannard | Team BikeExchange | s.t. |
| 66 | Simone Petilli | Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert | 0:35 |
| 67 | Luke Durbridge | Team BikeExchange | 0:41 |
| 68 | Piet Allegaert | Cofidis | 0:52 |
| 69 | Cristian Scaroni | Gazprom-RusVelo | 1:06 |
| 70 | Matteo Fabbro | Bora-hansgrohe | s.t. |
| 71 | Cesare Benedetti | Bora-hansgrohe | 1:11 |
| 72 | Louis Vervaeke | Alpecin-Fenix | 1:28 |
| 73 | Maxim van Gils | Lotto Soudal | s.t. |
| 74 | Nicolas Roche | Team DSM | 1:30 |
| 75 | Andreas Kron | Lotto Soudal | s.t. |
| 76 | Vegard Stake Laengen | UAE Team Emirates | s.t. |
| 77 | Pierre-Luc Perichon | Cofidis | 1:34 |
| 78 | Damien Howson | Team BikeExchange | 2:20 |
| 79 | Nick Schultz | Team BikeExchange | s.t. |
| 80 | Marco Canola | Gazprom-RusVelo | 2:28 |
| 81 | Torstein Taeen | Uno-X | 3:13 |
| 82 | Lucas Hamilton | Team BikeExchange | 3:29 |
| 83 | Sebastian Schonberger | B&B Hotels | 5:15 |
| 84 | Alexandar Richardson | Alpecin-Fenix | s.t. |
| 85 | Juri Hollmann | Movistar | s.t. |
| 86 | Nils Eekhoff | Team DSM | s.t. |
| 87 | Mathias Norsgaard | Movistar | s.t. |
| 88 | Arjen Livyns | Bingoal-WB | s.t. |
| 89 | Stanislaw Aniolkowski | Bingoal-WB | 7:26 |
| 90 | Rasmus Tiller | Uno-X | s.t. |
| 91 | Michel Ries | Trek-Segafredo | s.t. |