The president of the Danish Cycling Union (DCU), Niels Sørensen, has come away from the recent Tour of Denmark with a lot to be happy about. In an interview with Danish news site Ekstra Bladet he did not hold back his praise for the local event.
"It's been absolutely fantastic. The event has been really good. There have been lots of fans and the event was well-run."
Aside from logistics, the abundance of Danish success also went a long way to keeping local sponsors happy and local fans interested. Magnus Cort Nielsen (Team Cult Energy) up staged many bigger name riders to claim two stages, whilst Matti Breschel (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) added two stages of his own to the Danish tally.
It's this success that Sørensen alluded to in stating that he would not allow the race as a whole to move from it's Danish home.
"I think the Tour of Denmark has become too large a race for Scandinavians for it to be moved. It's too important."
He did, however, hint at expanding into Sweden for at least one stage for the 2015 edition of the tour.
"We would like to take the race to Sweden at some stage. We have spoken with the City of Malmo, and if it can't be next year, maybe in 2015."
With the UCI pushing the globalisation of cycling through the addition of events in Asia and more recently Africa, the growth in Scandinavia has gone relatively unnoticed. But with the addition of the upcoming Arctic Race of Norway run by Tour de France organisers, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), there are now 11 UCI-ranked events held in Scandinavia each year and the outlook for cycling within the region is prosperous.
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