Mads Pedersen went on the attack several times with Mathieu van der Poel and other adventurers during the European Championships but could not break the grip of Italy and Belgium on the race and so stop the race ending in a sprint.
Pedersen and his Danish teammates were named in the Cyclingnews race report numerous times. Even when a sprint seemed inevitable, Kapser Asgreen and Søren Kragh Andersen made late solo attacks.
Pedersen even tried in the hectic sprint finish, finishing sixth behind winner and new European Champion Tim Merleir of Belgium
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"I think we can be proud of the way we rode as a nation," Pedersen said post-race in the mixed zone.
"I think Denmark tried really hard to get rid of as many sprinters as possible but everyone is so good these days, that it's not so easy."
Pedersen was arguably more aggressive than van der Poel, going with the Dutchman and then launching further attacks.
When they got away with Danny van Poppel, Christophe Laporte, Jonas Rutsch and Arthur Kluckers, they believed they had a chance to break the grip of the sprint teams.
"It was a strong break with those kinds of guys," he said of the move that stayed clear for almost 205km.
"We were all going full for it but we knew that when Belgium and Italy didn't have a guy in the break, they'd pull to close it. It was us against them and they won that battle.
"I think we got absolutely everything out of today that we could. I finished sixth and after an effort like that, I'm quite happy with the result."
Pedersen is due to ride the Tour de Luxembourg this week as final preparation for the World Championships in Zurich. There he will face a battle against the climbers rather than the sprinters but still could be a contender for the rainbow jersey.
