Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep) beat stage 1 winner Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X) to win the second stage of the Tour of Denmark.
The European champion endured a difficult Tour de France after a sprint crash on stage 4 but showed he is back to his best in Silkeborg after surviving a late climb on the finishing circuit. It was Jakobsen’s 44th career victory and his first since a stage in the Baloise Belgium Tour in June.
Wærenskjold was given a lead out by a Uno-X teammate and he finished second to collect a further six bonus seconds after the ten he secured for his stage 1 win.
Søren Kragh Andersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was third, Tobias Lund Andresen (Team dsm-firmenich) was fourth, with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) only fifth after a clash with Kragh Andersen’s lead-out man.
Wærenskjold now leads Jakobsen by six seconds in the overall standings, with Pedersen now at 18 seconds.
Thursday’s 209km finishes in Vejle after a rolling finale in the hilliest part of Denmark. Every bonus second will be vital before Saturday’s decisive 16.1km individual time trial.
Six riders forced the sprinters’ teams to work hard for their shot at success during the 163.6km stage from Kjellerup to Silkeborg.
Mark Stewart (Bolton Equities Black Spoke), Henrik Pedersen (Team ColoQuick), Tobias Aagaard Hansen (Leopard TOGT), Daniel Stampe (Restaurant Suri - Carl Ras), Frederik Irgens Jensen (BHS-PL Beton Bornholm) and Julius Johansen (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) got away after a fast 20km of racing, extending their lead to three minutes at one point.
The riders in the attack shared the king of the hills points on the three short but steep climbs and the three intermediate sprints scattered along the stage route.
Uno-X, Team dsm-firmenich and even Tudor did the work on the front of the peloton, with the sprinters happy to let the break hang out front until the three short finishing circuits around Silkeborg.
The gap was down to 40 seconds as the break passed through the finish area for the first time with 15.9km to go. Stewart tried to go clear alone but the break was caught with nine kilometres to go on the short climb on the circuit.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) tried to shake up the peloton with an attack on the climb during the penultimate lap but he was tightly marked and kept under control.
The peloton was lined out over the final climb with four kilometres to go but the descending run-in to the finish made for a fast finale and high-speed sprint.
Jakobsen’s usual lead-out man Michael Mørkøv was not at his best but fellow Dane Casper Pedersen stepped up to guide him to the finish. Jakobsen opened up his sprint down the centre of the road and nobody could match his speed, giving him time to celebrate with his arms in the air.
Stephen is one of the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.
