Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) leapfrogged teammate Mattias Skjelmose and took overall victory at the Tour of Denmark by smashing the final stage individual time trial that started and finished in Helsingør.
Skjelmose started the day with a four-second lead over his Danish compatriot but was unable to hang on after the incredibly flat 16.1km ITT.
Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X) had gone onto the hot seat after beating Daan Hoole’s (Lidl-Trek) early benchmark, but when Pedersen crossed the second intermediate time check it was clear he was on a great day. His winning time of 17:50 was 24 seconds quicker than the Norwegian’s.
Skjelmose finished the stage 45 seconds down on Pedersen but did manage to secure the 1-2 finish for Lidl-Trek as he started the day 49 seconds ahead of the eventual third-place finisher, Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) to round off a full Danish podium.
Josef Černy (Soudal-QuickStep) was the first of the day’s favourites to leave the start ramp and he narrowly took the early lead from Frederik Muff (ColoQuick) with an 18:48 finishing time to set the benchmark for those to come.
The Czech rider was quickly knocked out of the hot seat by Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek) as the young Dutchman powered to the line 23 seconds faster with an average speed of 52km/h over the course.
Seldom of the next finishers would even come close to Hoole’s time, with the remaining favourites for the stage and the GC starting in the final ten riders.
Julius Johansen (Denmark) narrowly avoided crashing directly into spectators after failing to look up before a slight bend in the road, but thankfully no one was too badly hurt including the Dane as his fall was broken by the grass.
The non-technical course nearly claimed another victim as Soren Kragh Andersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) overcooked a 90-degree left-hand turn, one of only five corners on the course, and tested his cyclocross skills off the road and into the bushes.
Logan Currie (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) put in a solid 19:03 at the finish and more importantly finished more than a minute ahead of Kasper Andersen (Denmark) to win the youth classification after starting the day just 3 seconds behind the Dane.
Pedersen and Skjelmose were greeted with huge cheers as they departed the start ramp in Helsingør with the latter starting in his normal trade team skinsuit as opposed to that of the race leader due to a late broken zipper in his warm-up.
Wærenskjold trailed Hoole at the second intermediate time check by just eight-tenths of a second, but by the time he reached the finish line he had increased his pace and beat the Ducthman’s time by 11 seconds with an average speed of 53km/h.
His time in the lead wouldn’t last long, as Pedersen would then smash the second intermediate time check 22 seconds faster than Hoole and Wærenskjold on his way to the stage victory and overall win with Skjelmose crossing that point 33 seconds off his compatriot.
Cort put in a wonderful performance to hold onto his place on the podium and make it a Danish 1-2-3 ahead of Wærenskjold who did move into fourth overall after his stellar effort.
It was clear however, that Pedersen was on his way to stage victory and the leaders jersey as he was the only rider to finish under 18 minutes at 17:50 with a blistering average speed of 54km/h.
Skjelmose would lose the lead, but on a course much better suited to the bigger riders, he would’ve been pleased with fifth on the stage, second overall and a 1-2 for Lidl-Trek to round off a brilliant five days of racing in his and Pedersen’s home country just a couple weeks after the two played a huge role in the men’s World Championships road race.
It’s been quite the year for the Danish duo on Lidl-Trek, but they will both deserve a well-earned break after riding incredibly packed schedules with great success throughout 2023.
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