Tour of Denmark: Evenepoel shows he's back with stage 3 solo romp

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Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) won stage 3 of the PostNord Danmark Rundt - Tour of Denmark in Vejle, also taking the race lead with a solo attack 17 kilometres from the finish.

The young Belgian crossed the line alone, 25 minutes later, to seal the 17th victory of his pro career and put him firmly in the driving seat to take his seventh general classification title in three seasons.

Tosh van der Sande (Lotto Soudal) took second place after a late attack from the chase group, albeit 1:29 down, while Nick van der Lijke (Riwal) beat Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma) to round out the podium at 1:32.

Evenepoel had earlier recovered from going off the road on a descent while part of an attacking move 15 kilometres earlier on the 219-kilometre stage which started in Tønder. He seized the chance to go it alone on the closing hilly circuit of the stage, building a 40-second lead with two laps and 11 kilometres to go.

By the time he had begun the final lap, he had gained an additional 35 seconds over the chasers – Van der Sande, Van der Lijke, Teunissen, Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Anthon Charmig (Uno-X) - and was set for a comfortable solo win.

Such was Evenepoel's advantage in the final circuit, he was lapping riders as he made his way to the finish, with Deceuninck-QuickStep teammate Shane Archbold willing him on as he passed by en route to victory.

Earlier, at over 60 kilometres from the finish, the peloton had already brought the breakaway back as Deceuninck-QuickStep and Riwal pushed the pace.

The attacks flowed off the front afterwards, with Evenepoel prominent at the front. He would eventually make it away with a select attacking group – Pedersen, Teunissen, and the Team DSM duo of Casper Pedersen and Søren Kragh Andersen. They were away until Evenepoel's descending mistake took him out of the move with Casper Pedersen also running wide.

The ensuing chase, which saw Evenepoel's Deceuninck-QuickStep teammates catch the remainder of the move before the riders hit the final circuit, was enough to reset the status of the race up front, setting the scene for Evenepoel to make his winning move.

The result leaves Evenepoel in the race lead by 1:33 ahead of Van der Sande with two days left to race, while Van der Lijke lies third at 1:38. Mads Pedersen moves into the points classification lead on 32 points while Denmark's Rasmus Bøgh Wallin is the KOM leader and Evenepoel leads the white jersey standings by over three minutes.