Remco Evenepoel wins Tour of Denmark

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Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) secured the overall victory at the Tour of Denmark after winning the stage 5 final time trial in Frederiksberg. Evenepoel covered the 10.8km time trial in 12:13 beating runner-up Søren Kragh Andersen (Team DSM) by one second and third placed Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) by six seconds.

Evenepoel, who also won stage 3, finished the five-day race with the overall victory by 1:42 over Pedersen and two minutes over third placed in the overall classification Mike Teunissen (Team Jumbo-Visma).

“In a time trial you always go deep, and that’s what I did today. I didn’t see myself as the main favourite for the win, but getting it makes me happy, especially as it came on a short and technical ITT, with a lot of turns, that normally doesn’t suit me. I didn’t take any risks, as the main goal was to come home safely and wrap up the GC, but I’m delighted with the victory, because it’s always nice to get one in the leader’s jersey. It was the cherry on the cake at the end of a beautiful week," Evenepoel said.

“The victory is also a sign of things heading in the right direction, as I could feel better than in the previous races against the clock. My hard work and patience are starting to pay off, which is good for my confidence. The GC is my fifth win of the season, which I want to celebrate with this amazing team before returning to work again for the next races."

The final stage of the Tour of Denmark would be the decider in the overall classification with a 10.8km time trial in Frederiksberg. Evenepoel went into the stage in the overall race lead at a comfortable 1:33 ahead of Tosh van der Sande (Lotto Soul) and 1:36 to Pedersen.

It was unlikely that anyone could overtake Evenepoel in the general classification and as one of the strongest time triallists in the world, he had a good chance of winning the stage, too.

Anders Foldager (Denmark) was the first rider off of the starting ramp but the faster times wouldn’t happen until later in the start order.

Søren Kragh Andersen (Team DSM), who started 11th last, set a blistering time of 12:14 and that time held through the subsequent starters. His compatriot Pedersen was the closest in reaching the benchmark time but was five seconds shy of overtaking him for the hot seat. 

Evenepoel, who started, last pushed is pace out to more than 53kph and crossed the line by a fraction of a second faster than Kragh Andersen to take the stage win and the overall title at the Tour of Denmark.