It was held, in and around Hamburg, Germany, on 19 August over a distance of 245.9 kilometres (152.8 miles) and was the twenty-third race of the 2012 UCI World Tour season.

In a mass sprint finish, the race was won by FDJ–BigMat rider Arnaud Démare,[1] who became the first French rider to take victory in the event.

Démare finished ahead of Lotto–Belisol's André Greipel,[2] and RadioShack–Nissan's Giacomo Nizzolo, who completed the podium.

[3][4] As the Vattenfall Cyclassics was a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad.

Two other squads – Argos–Shimano and Team NetApp – were given wildcard places into the race,[5] and as such, formed the event's 20-team peloton.