Jumbo-Visma go 1-2 with Kooij and Laporte on stage 3 at Tour of Denmark

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Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) won the bunch sprint on stage 3 at the Tour of Denmark, in what was his second win at the five-day race. It was 1-2 for Jumbo-Visma as Christophe Laporte crossed the line in second, with Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) third in Herning.

"This was pretty close to the dream scenario. Especially Pascal Eenkhoorn and Tosh Van der Sande did a great job catching the breakaway. In the final, I followed Christophe, who had made it clear beforehand that we had to go through the last corner first," Kooij said. 

"When we came through the corner first and second, I knew there was a good chance we would make it. The fact that Christophe took some bonification seconds as well is super."

Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) has narrowly kept the overall race lead, now tied on time with runner-up Laporte, and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) in third at 15 seconds back.

How it unfolded

The third stage of the Tour of Denmark saw the peloton race 239km from Otterup to Herning. There were three intermediate sprints and two categorised climbs, but the challenges of the day lay across the seven gravel sectors positioned in the last half of the stage on the roads toward Herning.

Twelve riders settled into the day's breakaway that included Corbin Strong (Israel - Premier Tech), Samuele Zoccarato (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Filippo Ridolfo (Team Novo Nordisk), Louis Bendixen and Olav Hjemsæter (Team Coop), Adrian Banaszek (HRE Mazowsze Serce Polski), mountains classification leader Rasmus Bøgh Wallin and Oliver Knudsen (Restaurant Suri - Carl Ras), Frederik Irgens Jensen and Nikolaj Mengel (BHS - PL Beton Bornholm), Jeppe Aaskov Pallesen and Matias Malmberg (Team ColoQuick).

Banaszek picked up the full sprint points ahead of Malmberg in Harndrup. As the breakaway approached the next sprint, and it was Malberg who took the points ahead of Banaszek in Middelfart. Banaszek again picked up full sprint points later in the race in Brande.

Into the day's first of two climbs, Birkemosebak (1.7km at 2.4%), it was Wallin who continued his run of success in the mountains classification picking up another 12 points over the top. Over the second climb, Refsgårde (0.5km st 6.9%), Wallin was bested by Jensen, but still secured second place eight points to stay in the classification lead with a total of 44 points.

Behind the breakaway, and as the rain poured down, Ineos Grenadiers' Omar Fraile and Michal Kwiatkowski towed the main peloton into the succession of gravel sectors starting at the 108.4km mark with Skovkærvej (1.3km). Other teams joined the front Israel-Premier Tech, Trek-Segafredo and QuickStep-AlphaVinyl.

The race then hit gravel sectors Sønder Askærvej (1.7km), Den Gyldne Middelvej (2km), Nørregårdsvej (1.1km), Sandfeldvej (1.8km), Gottenborgvej (2.5km), Høgildgårdvej (3.8km), Bjerregårdvej (1.5km) and Buskvej (1.5km).

Off the gravel, attacks from the peloton came from Soren Kragh Andersen (Team DSM), Zdenek Stybar and Josef Cerny (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl). While these attacks stretched out the peloton, the gap to the break remained at 1:30 with 40km to go and onto the finishing circuits.

The breakaway's lead tumbled and they lost riders, however, as the race entered the final circuit. Malmberg made one last attack before the peloton shut down the gap completely inside three kilometres to the finish line.

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