Fuglsang continues Saxo Bank dominance

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Saxo Bank's young phenom Jakob Fuglsang soloed to victory in the Tour of Denmark's third stage on Friday to claim the third stage win for the team and become the third member to take the race's overall lead.

Fuglsang took advantage of the technical finishing circuits to break free of the field and briefly join the breakaway before attacking again to head to the line solo, 30 seconds clear of the bunch. In doing so, he took the overall lead from teammate Nicki Sorensen, who remains in second overall.

The action in the 181km stage began ahead of the first hill sprint, where nine riders broke clear.

Anders Lund (Saxo Bank), Daniel Lloyd (Cervelo), Bart Vanheule (Topsport), Thijs van Amerongen (Vacansoleil), Leonardo Giordani (Ceramica Flaminia), Sebastian Siedler (Voralberg), Troels Vinther and Thomas Guldhammer (Capinordic) and Laurent Didier (Designa Kokken). Andreas Frisch (Bluewater) bridged up to make lead group ten-strong.

Silence Lotto did much of the chasing with Saxo Bank taking a back seat because Lund was the best placed in the lead group.

As the race headed toward the third KOM at the mid-way point, the peloton split up and reformed under pressure of the chase, which had brought the leaders to within seconds, while the breakaway began to shatter as well.

Five riders formed a new group after the third KOM: Vanheule and Geert Steurs (Topsport), Vinther, Dominique Rollin (Cervelo), and Didier, but without Saxo Bank represented, the move was never given a large advantage.

Vinther and Rollin decided to go it alone, and the pair, now less threatening, was given the green light to contest the final bonus sprint as the race entered the finishing circuit.

With 30km left to race, the pair held just one minute on the peloton, from which Fuglsang was about to launch his winning attack.

The Danish winner of the Tour of Slovenia rocketed from the bunch on the final steep climb and bridged to Rollin, who had dropped Vinther before the second lap.

Fuglsang was pursued by Rasmus Guldhammer and his teammate Matti Breschel, who also joined the lead group with two laps to go, but the power of the former mountain bike star was unmatched by this trio. Fuglsang attacked again, going solo to be pursued by Cervelo's Ignatas Konovalovas, Breschel and Allan Johansen (Designa Kokken).

He finished off the stage with a 30 second lead, giving Saxo Bank its third stage win and third yellow jersey of the Tour of Denmark. Breschel led the bunch home ahead of Biondi.