After his narrow loss at the European road championships, Elia Viviani took revenge in Hamburg as he claimed the biggest one-day win of his career at the Cyclassics Hamburg. The Team Sky rider suffered a puncture with 50km to race in the German city but with his teammates fully committed to his cause, Viviani remained calm and then finished off the day with the win.
Viviani, 28, lead out the sprint with 200 metres to race and held off the fast-finishing French champion Arnaud Demare (FDJ) and Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo). Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin), the man who beat Viviani to the European title earlier in the month, was fourth in the sprint.
While Viviani didn't race the Cyclassics Hamburg in 2016, he explained Sky was committed to learning from previous mistakes in 2017 and pulled off the plan to perfection.
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"When I had a puncture I had three guys around me to bring me back to the group and Owain and Danny did an amazing job in the last 5km," Viviani said. "This morning we studied what had gone wrong for us in this race and we were able to improve with this win.
"We decided that the left corner with 2.7km to go was crucial and we went through it with me and Danny in second and third which was ideal. I am proud of this win, but this win is for the team."
With the memories still fresh from Denmark, where he lost to Kristoff, Viviani added he was keen to start his sprint as early as possible and was relieved to hold on for the victory.
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