Pellizzari and Del Toro tear apart Visma | Lease a Bike and race leader Barré in Germany

Giulio Pellizzari has won stage 3 of the Deutschland Tour. The Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Italian claimed victory in the queen stage after producing a spectacular ride alongside Isaac Del Toro. The pair escaped together and dominated the finale: Pellizzari took the stage victory, while the Mexican moved into the leader’s jersey after dislodging Louis Barré from the top of the general classification.

Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) had won the Deutschland Tour prologue and put himself in an excellent early position in the general classification, but he already lost the leader’s jersey to Louis Barré (Visma | Lease a Bike) in the first road stage. Barré then successfully defended his lead in the flatter second stage, where pre-race sprint favourite Paul Magnier was surprisingly beaten by 19-year-old Alessio Magagnotti (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe).

After the opportunity for the sprinters, attention turned back to the overall contenders with a 170-kilometre stage through the German hills. Featuring more than 3,000 metres of climbing, it looked set to be perhaps the most important stage of the entire race. Max Walscheid (Lidl-Trek) went clear early alongside Tobias Müller (Unibet Rose Rockets), with another six riders later joining them.

Those six were Yaël Joalland (Cofidis), Ko Molenaar (Picnic PostNL), Alan Jousseaume (TotalEnergies), Ellande Larronde (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Ben Felix Jochum (Lotto Kern-Haus) and Miguel Heidemann (REMBE | rad-net). The group was never given much freedom, however, with Lidl-Trek driving the peloton behind. With 110 kilometres remaining, everything had come back together. Well, almost everything...

The difficult hills in the opening part of the stage had already taken their toll, with plenty of riders dropped from the peloton. Several attacks followed from what remained of the bunch, although creating a meaningful gap proved difficult. Wilco Kelderman controlled proceedings for Barré as torrential rain poured down. Portuguese veteran Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) was happy to take advantage of the situation and opened a gap of more than a minute over the peloton.

Things then remained relatively calm until the serious climbs of the finale appeared. Del Toro immediately made his move. There was no waiting around: the Mexican attacked hard on the Rotsteig, the toughest climb in the closing part of the stage. Barré set off in pursuit but could only watch Del Toro disappear further up the road. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) then caught and passed the fading Frenchman before setting off in search of his friend in the green points jersey.

Del Toro had perhaps been a little too enthusiastic with his initial acceleration, and Pellizzari managed to join him. The pair caught Oliveira before plunging into the descent together. Behind them, Visma | Lease a Bike worked flat out in an attempt to keep the deficit under control, but by the summit of the first climb it had already grown to 40 seconds. The advantage only increased from there. Oliveira finally cracked on the penultimate climb and was forced to let the unleashed duo ride away.

Barré responded by getting out of the saddle once again, managing to reduce the advantage of the two leaders slightly. He could not get away from the group behind, though, and it increasingly appeared that the two strongest riders in the race were already at the front. The gap was around 45 seconds with one climb remaining. Pellizzari and Del Toro were working superbly together, exactly as you would expect from the two young stars, while race leader Barré had almost no teammates left around him. Only Tijmen Graat remained.

The riders crossed the finish line for the first time with 10 kilometres remaining, and by then the outcome was beginning to look inevitable. There was still one final climb to come, but could anything really change? In the chasing group, riders including Marc Hirschi (Tudor) and Mathieu Burgeaudeau (TotalEnergies) began pushing the pace, while Barré tried to fight his way back. The leaders, however, were not coming any closer.

Del Toro and Pellizzari continued to drive all the way towards the finish. Would they actually contest the stage victory between them? Del Toro completely emptied himself in front, allowing Pellizzari to sit in his wheel before comfortably winning the sprint. The Mexican had done his job and gained an equally valuable prize, taking the Deutschland Tour leader’s jersey from Barré, who conceded almost 50 seconds by the finish.

1. Giulio Pellizzari
2. Isaac Del Toro "
3. Marc Hirschi + 32