Danny van Poppel finished second in the Deutschland Tour 2024. After finishing third last year, the Dutchman once again made it onto the podium of Germany's only stage race.
This year's Deutschland Tour was once again a chase for seconds. The preliminary decision was made on yesterday's selective queen's stage, when van Poppel climbed onto the GC podium. But with a lead of just one second, his position was far from secure.
On today's final stage, the final ten kilometres were a fierce battle. Once again it was the bonus sprint just before the finish that decided the race: Danny van Poppel won two seconds and was only five seconds behind second place. In the final sprint a few kilometres later, he showed his speed. Although he was beaten by overall winner Mads Pedersen, he crossed the line in second place. This gave him another six bonus seconds - enough to move up to second place in the overall standings.
Danny van Poppel
“Third last year - second this year. I'm really happy because we rode really well as a team all week and especially today. But I'm also a bit disappointed because I felt that the stage win was so close. I made a small mistake in the sprint. Anyway, second in the stage and in the GC - it was a really good week and only one team was too strong.”
Heinrich Haussler
"We had a few podiums throughout the week and we ended up 2nd on GC with Danny. I'm super proud of the way the guys committed. Every single day they sacrificed themselves either for Jordi or for Danny. Today we went all in for Danny. He took some bonus seconds on the last climb where we wanted to secure the podium. But then we were in a situation where we could even take second on GC, and Danny went absolutely all in."