Mads Pedersen claimed Lidl-Trek's third straight stage win in the Deutschland Tour, out-pacing late escape companions Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X) and Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost) in Schwäbisch Gmünd.
Pedersen followed teammate Jonathan Milan, winner of the prologue and stage 1, in victory. With the stage win and time bonus, Pedersen moved into the race lead, taking the jersey from Milan.
Pedersen leads the Deutschland Tour ahead of Johannessen by 12 seconds, with Ineos' Ethan Hayter third at 21 seconds.
In the final 80 kilometres, the gap had come down below one minute and Marco Brenner (Lotto Kern-Haus PSD) and Bjørn Koerdt (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) bridged across.
Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost), Kevin Vermaerke (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Toms Skujinš (Lidl-Trek) made a counter-move but they too were caught with 21km to go.
Pedersen launched a searing attack in the final 2km, pulling Ryan and Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X) away but he held on to take Lidl-Trek's third straight stage win.
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