Mads Pedersen has won the Tour of Denmark. On the final day, the Danish home rider put the icing on the cake by also winning the last stage. He did this after his team Lidl-Trek drove the peloton hard in the finale.
The Tour of Denmark concluded with a stage from Hobro to Silkeborg. Once in the finish town, four local laps of just over five kilometers each had to be completed. Each lap featured a climb of one kilometer at an average of five percent, where the finish line was also located. Ideal for punchers!
Hobro) Silkeborg)Fuglsang celebrates farewell in breakaway
For Jakob Fuglsang, it was a special day regardless, as it was his last race day as a professional cyclist. The 40-year-old Dane had already decided to hang up his bike after the Tour of Denmark. He celebrated his farewell by joining the early breakaway, which consisted of eight riders in total. None of these riders posed a threat to the general classification.
Still, the escapees never got more than two minutes on the peloton, which was controlled by Euskaltel-Euskadi, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Picnic PostNL and Visma | Lease a Bike. When these teams slightly increased the pace, the peloton quickly halved in size. With forty kilometers to go, Mads Andersen (AIRTOX-Carl Ras) decided to go solo. The lone rider managed to hold on for a while, but at 17 kilometers from the finish his effort came to an end. Lidl-Trek then took control and pushed full gas on the second of the four climbs.
Lidl-Trek drops the bomb
Skjelmose shattered the peloton, after which Pedersen added another gear. Only three riders could hold Pedersen’s wheel: his teammates Jakob Söderqvist and Søren Kragh Andersen, and Axel Zingle. However, Lukas Kubis, Niklas Larsen and Matyáš Kopecký managed to bridge back. This left seven riders – three of them from Lidl-Trek – entering the ultimate finale. Alec Segaert tried to bridge alone but arrived too late.
On the penultimate climb in Silkeborg, Söderqvist set the pace. It was so high that Larsen and Kubis were dropped. The group of five went into the last uphill kilometer, where Kragh Andersen took the lead. Then Pedersen launched from far out, but Zingle managed to close the small gap he had to leave. After that, the pace eased a bit, allowing the others to catch back on.
Pedersen holds off Zingle by a narrow margin
Kragh Andersen rode back to the front and led out the sprint for Pedersen. He struggled to stay ahead of Zingle but succeeded. This secured the Lidl-Trek leader his third stage win and added even more glory to his overall victory.
There were still some shifts in the top five of the general classification. Söderqvist moved from fourth to second, while Larsen and Kubis both lost a place. For Kubis, this meant missing out on the podium. The Unibet Tietema Rockets rider finished fourth in the overall standings.
PostNord Tour of Denmark| Rank | Rider | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 03:27:44 | |
| 2 | " | |
| 3 | " | |
| 4 | " | |
| 5 | + 05 | |
| 6 | + 22 | |
| 7 | " | |
| 8 | " | |
| 9 | " | |
| 10 | " |
