Tour of Denmark 2023 – Stage 4 [FULL STAGE]

August 18, 2023

Tour of Denmark 2023 🇩🇰 – Stage 4 – Kalundborg – Bagsværd : 178,4 km

The Danmark Rundt, commonly known as the Tour of Denmark in English, is Denmark’s flagship stage race and an opportunity for the nation who has won the last two Tours de France to show off its homegrown talent. In fact, since its first edition back in 1985, this race has seen 13 Danish victories with several of the nation’s most decorated riders of all time. Traditionally, the five-day race starts on the Jutland peninsula and ends on the island of Zealand, home to the Danish capital, Copenhagen. This year, the first stage will take place in Aalborg, the fourth largest city in Denmark. Since 2004, the race has included a pivotal GC stage that heads up the steep Kiddesvej climb in the city centre of Vejle. It’s this hilly stage, combined with a final day time trial, that usually determines the overall winner. As a result, the race favours strong puncheurs that are also adept time trialists.

Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep) took his second sprint win at the Tour of Denmark, coming up fast from behind the chaos on the left of the wide finish to celebrate with his arms in the air.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was second, with Luca Colnaghi (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) third, Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X) fourth and Australia’s Jensen Plowright (Alpecin-Deceuninck) fifth after Ramon Sinkeldam lead out the sprint with a long surge for Plowright.

Pedersen took a six-second time bonus for his second place and so is now only four seconds behind his teammate Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) going into Saturday’s decisive 16.1km time trial around Helsingør north of Copenhagen.

Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) is third overall at a more distant 49 seconds.

The final sprint stage of this year’s Tour of Denmark saw another breakaway but yet another controlled chase by Uno-X, Soudal-QuickStep and other sprint teams during the 177.8km ride east from Kalundborg to Bagsværd north of Copenhagen.

The six-rider early break was down to four riders in the final 50km, with Simon Pellaud (Tudor Pro Cycling), Emil Mielke Vinjebo (Leopard TOGT), 2024 Uno-X signing Rasmus Bøgh Wallin (Restaurant Suri-Carl Ras) and Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen (CIC U Nantes Atlantique) trying to surprise the peloton with a late surge.

The crowds were huge along the roadside as the Danish love of cycling continued even in the absence of Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard. The crowds cheered on the break, loving their bravery but also the peloton, as they desperately tried to chase the four attackers.

The quartet’s lead was down to 30 seconds as the race started the three finishing circuits with 14.4km to go but they refused to give in, working smoothly on the fast laps.

Tim Declercq did some huge turns for Jakobsen and then Soudal-QuickStep committed even more riders, sensing the attackers were fighting to stay away. However, the gap was still 16 seconds as the bell rang out to signal the start of the final 4.8km lap.

The four kept fighting but a gradual rise halfway around the circuit proved fatal, biting into their legs. Suddenly the peloton could see them and the sprint lead-outs ensured the four were cruelly caught with two kilometres to race.

After the sweeping left turn into the finishing straight, Sinkeldam opened up his lead-out and even got a gap on the peloton. Suddenly the wide road was awash with sprinters and Jakobsen was not in sight. He appeared in the final 150 metres, coming wide on the left side of the road, shaking off sprint rival Wærenskjold and then diving to the centre of the road to hit the finish line and open his arms in celebration.

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