Cyclassics Hamburg

Cyclassics Hamburg, run as the ADAC Cyclassics since 2025 after its title sponsor, is a men's WorldTour one-day bike race usually held in August in northern Germany. Since 2025 the route has started in Buxtehude in Lower Saxony and finished in the center of Hamburg after several climbs of the Waseberg.

The Hamburg Cyclassics, officially the ADAC Cyclassics Hamburg, is a WorldTour one-day race first held in 1996. It usually ends in a sprint in the city center. The Waseberg, a short, steep climb in Blankenese, gives attackers a chance late in the race, and some winners have reached the finish ahead of the sprinters.

HEW Cyclassics and Jan Ullrich’s win in 1997

The race began in the summer of 1996 with Rudi Altig, the 1966 world champion, as its sporting director. Rossano Brasi won the first edition, which at 160 kilometers is still the shortest in the history of the race.

A year later, on August 10, 1997, Jan Ullrich won in Hamburg two weeks after winning the Tour de France. The organizer credits that win with helping to start a cycling boom across Germany and with bringing what was then the HEW Cyclassics to international attention.

World Cup years and the move to the WorldTour

In 1998, its third edition, the race joined the UCI Road World Cup in place of Britain’s Wincanton Classic, and the course was lengthened to about 253 kilometers. Léon van Bon won that year and Erik Zabel in 2001. Johan Museeuw, Paolo Bettini and Stuart O’Grady followed from 2002 to 2004.

In 2005 Hamburg was a founding member of the UCI ProTour, the forerunner of the WorldTour. With Eschborn-Frankfurt it is one of Germany’s two one-day races at that level. The name has followed the title sponsor: Vattenfall from 2006 after it bought HEW, EuroEyes from 2016, BEMER from 2021 and the ADAC from 2025. In 2025 A.S.O. also took over the event through its German subsidiary.

The Waseberg climb in Blankenese

The Waseberg is about 700 meters long and averages close to 10 percent. The riders climb it several times on a circuit in the last part of the race: three times in 2022, five times in 2025 and 2026. The country around it is flat, and for most of the race’s history the sprinters’ teams have brought the field back together on the way into the city. Tyler Farrar won in 2009 and 2010 and was the first rider to win in consecutive years.

Elia Viviani’s three wins in a row

Alexander Kristoff won the sprint of a small bunch in 2014, ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo and Simon Gerrans. A year later the race started in Kiel, with the riders rolling off a ferry, and André Greipel came off Kristoff’s wheel to win. Greipel is still the last German winner.

Elia Viviani won in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and no other rider has won the race three times. The first came for Team Sky in heavy rain, ahead of Arnaud Démare and Dylan Groenewegen. The other two came for Quick-Step. In 2018 a crash in the last two kilometers left about 30 riders to sprint, and in 2019 Michael Mørkøv led him out to beat Caleb Ewan and Nizzolo.

Marco Haller beats Wout van Aert in 2022

The pandemic canceled the race in 2020 and 2021. When it returned in 2022, a crash before the second of the three Waseberg ascents took Ewan and Fabio Jakobsen out of contention. Bora-Hansgrohe then sent Patrick Konrad up the road to join his teammate Ide Schelling from the early break.

Wout van Aert split the field on the last ascent. Konrad was already ahead, Quinten Hermans and Jhonatan Narváez followed Van Aert, and Marco Haller, a second Bora-Hansgrohe rider, made it across. The five stayed clear to the line. Konrad led out the sprint, Haller went early and held off Van Aert, and Hermans was third. The next group, with some of the sprinters in it, finished 10 seconds later.

Mads Pedersen’s chase in the last kilometer in 2023

In 2023 Brandon McNulty and Nils Politt attacked 13 kilometers from the finish, and Yves Lampaert joined them. They still had a gap entering the last kilometer, where McNulty left the other two behind. Mads Pedersen did not wait for the sprint. He jumped out of the peloton, used the slipstream of Politt, then Lampaert, then McNulty, and passed all three before the line. “I just tried to jump across as I was not sure we would catch them in the sprint,” he said afterward. Danny van Poppel closed so fast from behind that a photo finish had to confirm the result.

Rory Townsend’s breakaway and Paul Magnier’s sprint

Olav Kooij won a bunch sprint in 2024, ahead of Jonathan Milan and Biniam Girmay. In 2025 the start moved to Buxtehude in Lower Saxony for the first time, and the Köhlbrand Bridge returned to the route.

Rory Townsend went clear in a group of four after a few of the 207 kilometers. Attacks on the Waseberg split the peloton and disrupted the chase, and three of the four reached the last kilometer with 10 seconds in hand. Townsend started his sprint with 400 meters to go and held off Arnaud De Lie and Paul Magnier by no more than two bike lengths. At 30, he had his first WorldTour win.

Magnier won in 2026. Isaac del Toro attacked on the last of five Waseberg ascents, about 15 kilometers from the finish, and the split dropped Milan and Kooij. Magnier stayed in the front group. The attacks that followed were all brought back, and he won the sprint on Mönckebergstraße ahead of Mike Teunissen and Laurence Pithie. He was the first French winner since Démare in 2012.

This is the rare WorldTour one-day race built for sprinters, but it rarely unfolds like a controlled procession. The course is usually a little over 200 kilometers long, and the Waseberg, a climb of about 700 meters at close to 10 percent, comes several times on the final circuits. When the race stays together, it ends in a bunch sprint in the city center. When it fractures, a small group or a breakaway can stay clear, as Marco Haller's group did in 2022 and Rory Townsend did in 2025.