DSM-Firmenich PostNL won the opening team time trial at the Tour of Denmark by the narrowest of margins, edging out UAE Team Emirates by less than half a second on the 13.7km course in Holstebro.
The Dutch squad were the first team down the start ramp on Wednesday afternoon, setting a time of 14:30.50 at the finish line as Tobias Lund Andresen led them home. They'd sit in the hot seat for an hour before UAE started their effort.
At the mid-stage checkpoint, 7km in, UAE posted a time six seconds off the pace, but the group sped up in the second half, driving to the line almost neck-and-neck with DSM.
Ivo Oliveira led UAE across the line, but his effort fell fractions of a second short of taking the stage win. As a result, Lund takes the first leader's jersey of the race after a TTT that handed all riders separate finishing times. That means his DSM teammates Johan Dorussen and Frank van den Broeck lie second and fourth overall, while Oliveira fills third place. Finn Fisher-Black is in fifth overall.
"It was a really nice day today," Lund Andresen said later. "We had a chance to do some laps before the race and to make a good plan.
"I think we executed this perfectly with the turns. We lost a couple of guys on the way but we also planned that if we only gave four left then we push on after halfway.
"It's really nice to get my home race started like this and nice to have the yellow jersey. Now we can look forward to the rest of the stages."
Lotto-Dstny – featuring Arnaud De Lie and Florian Vermeersch – were the third-quickest team on the day, recording a time of 14:33.10, less than three seconds off the winners. Meanwhile, the Danish national squad took fourth with a time of 14:35.40 and Danish Continental team ColoQuick took fifth with a time of 14:36.60.
With six teams – Magnus Cort led Uno-X Mobility home at seven seconds down – finishing within 10 seconds of the winners, the top of the general classification is very close heading into the hilly 231km second stage to Vejle.
18 riders lie within 10 seconds of Lund Andresen, with De Lie and Cort among them. Both are threats to take over the race lead on Thursday. The pair look ideally placed to battle for the win on the closing circuits in Vejle, which features a 400-metre, 9% ramp to the finish line.
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