Dane Soeren Kragh Andersen of the Alpecin-Deceuninck team won the Eschborn-Frankfurt one-day race on Monday by outsprinting a small clique who had dropped the rest of the peloton.
It was the 28-year-old's first win since 2020 when he won two stages on the Tour de France and another on Paris-Nice.
On Monday he edged Austrian Patrick Konrad into second and Italian Alessandro Fedeli into third when their lead group beat the peloton home by 18 seconds.
"It was an extremely difficult race with a lot of climbs. But it was the perfect race for me because I ended up with a small group and this win means a lot to me because it's been a long time since I won," said Andersen.
On a sunny day, Andersen and five others escaped on a 2km long hill with an eight per cent incline halfway around the 204km course around the German financial capital.