The Vattenfall Cyclassics is one of the youngest one-day road races in the UCI ProTour but it is one of the best because race organizers combine a high quality professional race with a day of cycling for everyone who loves two-wheels. While the 200 UCI ProTour riders cover the early part of the 250km course to the south of Hamburg, thousands of ordinary cyclists and their families enjoy riding on the circuit used for the final part of the race near the river Elbe. They test themselves on the steep climb up from the river and then enjoy a carnival atmosphere as they watch the final part of the main race in the afternoon. In 2006 three-time World Champion Oscar Freire of the Rabobank edged out German hero Erik Zabel and 2005 winner Filippo Pozzato in a close sprint. All three riders thought they had won but the photo finish showed Freire had got it by a few millimetres. This year the Vattenfall Cyclassics comes just after the end of the Deutschland Tour and will be a special climax to the end of the German cycling summer. If Erik Zabel can finally win the sprint, he could be declared Germany’s greatest ever cyclist.
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