Berlin, Aug 21, 2011 (AFP) – Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky won the Hamburg Cyclassics on Sunday to follow up his win in the Eneco Tour last Sunday.

The 24-year-old Norwegian, who claimed two stage wins on last month’s Tour de France, won by a matter of centimetres in a time of four hours, 49 mins, 40 secs over the 216.6km-long course.

Germany’s Gerald Ciolek finished second at less than a second behind having twice come third in the event, in 2007 and 2009, and missed out on becoming the first German to win the race since Erik Zabel in 2001.

Slovenia’s Borut Bozic was third as Boasson Hagen held off his rivals after being part of a 40-strong pack of riders which broke away from the peleton 15 kilometres from the finish.

“That was my best performance of the season so far, but when you are so close to victory, you want to win,” said a disappointed Ciolek, the 2006 Under-23 Road Race world champion.

Russian road champion Pavel Brutt had dictated the early pace after a lone breakaway, but the 29-year-old was caught 25 kilometres from the finish.

This year’s Cyclassics attracted 22,000 hobby cyclists, who raced alongside the pros, with some 700 police officers overseeing the route and an estimated 800,000 fans watching the action.

Results of the 16th edition of the Hamburg
Cyclassics, a 217km-long ProTour race here on Sunday:

1. Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR/SKY) 4hours 49 mins 40secs.
2. Gerald Ciolek (GER/QST) at 1 sec
3. Borut Bozic (SLO/VCD) 0.00
4. Simone Ponzi (ITA/LIQ) 0.00
5. Jose Joaquin Rojas (ESP/MOV) 0.00
6. JUErgen Roelandts (BEL/OLO) 0.00
7. Simon Clarke (AUS/AST) 0.00
8. Manuele Cardoso (POR/RSH) 0.00
9. Grega Bole (SLO/LAM) 0.00
10. Michel Kreder (NED/GRM) at 2 secs.
11. Lars Boom (NED/RAB) 0.00
12. Mitchell Docker (AUS/SKS) 0.00
13. Mickael Cherel (FRA/ALM) 0.00
14. Alexander Kristoff (NED/BMC) 0.00
15. Fabian Wegmann (GER/LEO) 0.00