Mads Pedersen wins Tour of Denmark stage 3

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Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) won stage 3 at the Tour of Denmark in wet and windy weather one day after conditions forced organisers to cancel the second stage.

Pedersen benefited from a strong lead out by teammate Jasper Stuyven over the uphill final two kilometres, eventually taking off from Stuyven’s wheel in the final 500 metres and leading all the way to the line, where he finished ahead of fellow Dane Michael Valgren (Astana) and Dutchman Lennard Hofstede (Team Sunweb).

"Jasper yelled to me that I have to go because he looked back and saw I had a little gap, and from there on you just have to push and push and push," Pedersen said. "You are always afraid that someone is coming back when you make a gap like this and still have 500 meters to the top of the climb at the finish. I was a little bit afraid of Valgren and that he would come back, but for sure he was at his limit like I was, it was all about going really deep.

"It's unbelievable. It's so huge to win this stage," Pedersen continued. "Every Danish rider is really talking about this stage, and already after this race on Saturday they will talk about this stage again next year, so to win this stage, on this course, is really special."

Stuyvens showed his form ahead of the World Championships by helping close down attacks on the final lap, and then the Belgian accelerated to the front with Pedersen on his wheel.

"Jasper was just a beast on the bike today," Pedersen said. "Having a puncture before the final circuit… Normally when you have bad luck like that, you never come back to the front. So for him just to come back is really impressive, and then the work he did for me after that. And then the leadout into the climb was just perfect."

"Think of a star like him who sacrifices everything to drive for someone like me. It just shows how big a person he is," Pedersen said. 

Pedersen now leads Valgren in the overall by nine seconds, with Hofsteded in third, 14 seconds down. Stage 1 winner and overnight leader Casper Pedersen (Team Giant - Castelli) slipped to fifth, 19 seconds down.

The race continues Friday with the stage 4 individual time trial on a 17.8km course in Randers. The race concludes Saturday with a 198km stage from Ebeltoft to Aarhus.

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