Jakob Fuglsang (Leopard Trek) took the first home win of this year’s Tour of Denmark, between Aarhus and Vejle, after escaping the peloton on the final lap of the short hilly finishing circuit. The three-time race winner finished two seconds clear of Simon Gerrans (Team Sky), with Fuglsang’s Leopard Trek teammate Daniele Bennati coming in another nine seconds later.
“There was clear plan today to go for the stage win,” explained Fuglsang afterwards. “After I lost so much time on the opening stage, I decided to focus on this stage and not worry so much about the time gaps.
“I have good fitness and good legs coming out of the Tour de France,” he continued. “Today, I showed that I’m one of the strongest riders here. I showed that it was bad luck that I didn’t finish with the front group on the first stage. I’m happy to take something with me from this Tour of Denmark.”
Just 13km in to the 181km Queen stage Martin Pedersen (Leopard Trek), Roman Delalot (Cofidis), Michael Van Stayen (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Martijn Verschoor (Team Type 1-Sanofi), Rasmus Guldhammer (Concordia Forsikring-Himmerland), René Jørgensen (Christina Watches-Onfone) and Rolf Nyborg Broge (Post Danmark) escaped.
Unfortunately for Van Staeyen he was unable to stay with the other six fugitives, but the peloton, led by race leader Matti Breschel’s Rabobank team, prevented them from getting too far away. The lead grew to three and a half minutes at its maximum but, after 98km, it was down below two minutes and it was all over with 30km to go as the race approached the three short, sharp 5.6km finishing circuits.
The first time up the Kiddesvej climb, with its gradients of up to 21%, Andre Steensen (Saxo Bank-SunGard) put in an attack, which was followed by Michael Rasmussen (Christina Watches). It was all together the second time around though, when problems with some race vehicles forced much of the peloton to stop, with a number of riders having to put their feet down on the climb.
With the peloton still in confusion on the final lap Fuglsang made his move and was pursued by a most of the race’s overall contenders. On the final climb though, the chasers were unable to catch the winner of the last three editions of the race, and he finished alone, two seconds clear of a gaining Gerrans.
Although he missed out on the stage win, with Breschel finishing in a group 13 seconds behind Fuglsang, Gerrans took over the leader’s yellow jersey.
Result stage 3
1. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Leopard Trek
2. Simon Gerrans (Aus) Team Sky @ 2s
3. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Leopard Trek @ 11s
4. Niki Østergaard-Nielsen (Den) Glud & Marstrand – LRØ @ 13s
5. Bert Lindeman (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM
6. Remy Cusin (Fra) Cofidis
7. Michael Mørkøv (Den) Saxo Bank-SunGard
8. Matti Breschel (Den) Rabobank
9. Stefan Denifl (Aut) Leopard Trek
10. Damien Gaudin (Fra) Euskaltel-Euskadi
Standings stage 3
1. Simon Gerrans (Aus) Team Sky
2. Matti Breschel (Den) Rabobank @ 4s
3. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Leopard Trek @ 8s
4. Michael Mørkøv (Den) Saxo Bank-SunGard @ 9s
5. Bert Lindeman (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM @ 17s