Already 100 professional cyclists cycled at the premiere of "Hamburg’s bike race for pros and age groupers" in 1996, among them sprinter ace Erik Zabel, who even made the Winner’s list in 2001.
But it was Jan Ullrich who initially gave the sport its enormous popularity boost in Germany in 1997 by achieving a "double": at the Tour de France and the current race in Hamburg, at that time called HEW Cyclassics. By obtaining World Cup status, Hamburg’s cycling race reached a milestone in 1998.
Since 2005, the pro level races have been held as part of the sport’s pinnacle tournament, the UCI ProTour. For this reason, the event is considered as one of the sport’s major one-day cycling races in the world. The fact that it also deservedly belongs to the tour despite its comparatively short history is best emphasized by race director Roland Hofer: "Although pro race might seem to be more accommodating to the sprinters due to its profile, it can ultimately be won by any of the great cyclists, and it’s exactly this kind of race that’s needed in order to have a well-balanced ProTour.“
Ever since the merger of the event’s title sponsors, the Hamburg Electric Works Corp. (HEW) and the Berlin Power & Light Co. (Bewag), to form "Vattenfall Europe" in 2006, the event has been named Vattenfall Cyclassics.
