August 22, 2026
Two days are left in the 2026 edition of the Deutschland Tour and everything is still to play for. The first 25 km out of Herxheim are the easiest the riders will have for remaining 145 km of the stage. Shortly after passing through Albersweiler, the route turns away from the Queich River and into Pfälzerwald and the ridges of the Haardt Range. There are nine peaks to contend with, five of which are categorized, and all are between 2-5 km long at gradients of 6-8%. The hardest among them is the Kolmit, a 5.2 km climb at 7.3% that is tackled twice, the second time coming with 100 km left to go. There is an intermediate sprint in Elmstein then two more climbs before the finale should really kick off on the Rotsteig. The Rotsteig is situated 34 km from the finish and is 1.7 km at almost 8%. There are a few more little rises before the descent begins which will take the riders into the finish town of Bad Dürkheim and to the base of the Annaberg, a 2 km climb at 6%. A fast descent off the Annaberg brings the race back into Bad Dürkheim for an intermediate sprint before the second and final ascent of the Annaberg, this time with bonus seconds on offer at the top. There are only 5.5 km to the finish from the top, 3 of which are part of a focused downhill then the run through town for the finish. There is over 3,100 meters of elevation gain across the day and with how aggressive the racing has been this week, we should see fireworks early and often with the best man winning at the end of the day.
Race Summary
Summer returned to Germany at the start in Herxheim with beautiful blue skies dotted with a few puffy clouds and temperatures around 18C (65F). Eight riders made up the early break but only three remained when they reached the Kolmit, Miguel Heidemann of REMBE | rad-net, Ben Felix Jochum of Lotto Kern Haus-Outlet Montabaur, and Ellande Larronde of TotalEnergies. They were brought back and it was Théo Hébert of TotalEnergies who countered and went through the intermediate sprint in Elmstein first before he too was caught. By the time cameras started to roll with 66 km to go, the weather had changed and it was pounding rain as the race passed through Mückenwiese. Only Nelson Oliveira of Movistar was off the front by 30 seconds with Wilco Kelderman of Visma-Lease a Bike pulling a reduced peloton along behind.
Kelderman continued to pull the group through deep, dark forests as the rain subsided and fog rose up from the valleys to settled on the hilltops. Oliveira extended his lead to 1 minute 10 seconds as he climbed up to the top of an uncategorized climb with 53 km to go. Once in Weiderthal, the roads started to dry as the riders turned into the Hochspeyerbach River valley for a false flat downhill to the villages of Neidenfels and Lambrecht.
UAE-XRG picked up the pace in the peloton, which numbered less than 60 riders, heading into the Rotsteig. Oliveira took the sharp left turn under a railway bridge with 36 km to go and started climbing with a 1 minute 20 second advantage. UAE-XRG went full from the bottom, first with Nils Politt then António Morgado. Morgado dropped everyone except for Isaac del Toro and when the Mexican National Champion launched, race leader Louis Barré of Visma-Lease a Bike was out of position and sprinting to close the gap which was around 5 seconds. Barré went deep but he did not have the legs to close the final few meters and the Frenchman watched as the gap expanded meter by meter to del Toro. Barré drifted backwards into the remnants of the peloton as Giulio Pellizzari of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe came alive and flew passed Barré and towards del Toro. At the top of the climb, the peloton was 50 seconds down on Oliveira, 25 seconds down on del Toro, with Pellizzari closing on del Toro in the middle.
On the final rise before the decent proper with 31 km to go, Oliveira, del Toro, and Pellizzari came together to join forces and were 36 seconds clear of the Visma-Lease a Bike chasing peloton. Pellizzari and del Toro worked very well together with Oliveira justifiably sitting on as they reached flat ground through the vineyards of Wachenheim in der Weinstraße. By the bottom of the first passage of the Annaberg, the three leaders had 1 minute 5 seconds and seemed to have the momentum in their favor.
A third of the way up the climb, Oliveira was dropped from the lead group just as Mathieu Burgaudeau of TotalEnergies was attacking out of the chasing peloton. Burgaudeau was hauled back and was countered by Barré a few hundred meters later in what felt like a last gasp effort. Barré was caught by the peloton and went over the top with around 25 riders who were 50 seconds down on del Toro and Pellizzari.
The gap held at 50 seconds through the intermediate sprint at the finish line for one 11 km lap to go. Barré had just one teammate left while the other teams waited behind to employ their resources but it was becoming too late to do anything about the gap. When they reached the bottom of the Annaberg for the last time, Marc Hirschi of Tudor Pro Cycling went on the attack and Barré was completely out of position again. Burgaudeau joined up with Hirschi as Barré moved to the front of the chase group to salvage what he could from the day. Del Toro led over the summit to collect the maximum 3 bonus seconds, Pellizzari collected 2 seconds and Hirschi took the last second 32 seconds later. Burgaudeau was dropped and caught by the Barré chase group and crested at 45 seconds down and out of the game.
Pellizzari and del Toro swished their way through the puddles in the streets of Bad Dürkheim and entered the final kilometer with exactly the same gap they had at the top of the Annaberg. Pellizzari positioned himself behind del Toro who never slowed down even for a second. Pellizzari popped out of the slipstream at 200 meters and was effectively unchallenged for the stage win. The young Italian crossed the line with arms aloft in victory with del Toro behind in second. Hirschi stayed clear for third place at 34 seconds as the rest of the favorites came in at 49 seconds, led in by Senna Remijn of Alpecin-Premier Tech.
Del Toro reclaimed the GC lead and now firmly owns it by 52 seconds over Barré and 1 minute 5 seconds to Hirschi who jumped nine positions in the GC to third. We did not see much of him, but Giulio Ciccone, who started the day third in GC, lost contact very early and lost 10 minutes.