Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) claimed his fourth straight Eschborn-Frankfurt title on Tuesday with Matthews (Team Sunweb) beaten into second and Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) edging out third.
Fernando Gaviria launched the sprint first, several hundred meters from the line but he was then swallowed up by the other fast finishers.
Kristoff hit the front with some 150 meters to go and held off Matthews to defend his title and take his first one-day victory of 2018.
“I was lucky because Gaviria went wrong in the last corner,” Kristoff said. “He had a small gap so it would have been hard to close. Luck was on my side and in the end, I managed to take it so I’m really happy.”
“I did not really feel strong,” Kristoff admitted. “On the second lap I was dropped, but luckily I managed to recover and got better. The last two times I felt better and managed to stay in the group.”
Eschborn-Frankfurt 2018 results:
| 1 | Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) | 5:13:25 |
| 2 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 3 | Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 4 | Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) | +01” |
| 5 | Sean De Bie (Veranda’s Willems Crelan) | ,, |
| 6 | Grega Bole (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 7 | Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) | +02” |
| 8 | Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 9 | Jan Tratnik (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) | ,, |
| 10 | Juan Jose Lobato (Nippo-Vini Fantini) | ,, |
