Mattias Skelmose (Lidl-Trek) won stage 3 of the Tour of Denmark and gave himself a shot at overall success after an aggressive ride from Lidl-Trek on the hardest stage of this year’s race to Vejle.
His teammate Mads Pedersen finished ten seconds down on Skelmose after splitting the race several times.
Pedersen started to attack as far out as 55 km to go and finally got away from a select group on the 10km hilly finishing circuit. Skelmose joined him with seven kilometres to go and then opened a gap on the climb to the finish.
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Skelmose secured a ten-second time bonus for his stage win and so now leads the Tour of Denmark with a flat road stage on Friday and then Saturday’s 16.1km time trial to race. Pedersen is second overall at 10 seconds.
Stage 1 winner and race leader Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X) dropped out of contention after a puncture with 18 km to go.
Magnus Cort (EF Education-Easypost) won the sprint for third place. He was 44 seconds down on Skelmose but rose to third overall at 50 seconds.
The longest stage of the 2023 Tour of Denmark was also the hardest, with short but hard climbs throughout the 209 km of racing from Vejen to Vejle in southern Denmark.
An early break of seven riders was allowed to stay out front until the final 50km, with Nicklas Amdi Pedersen (Team ColoQuick) scoring a haul of points on the climbs to take the lead in the King of the Hills competition.
Jacopo Mosca did much of the chasing for Lidl-Trek, with Uno-X also stepping up to defend Wærenskjold’s lead. The break was caught with 44 km to go as the three hilly finishing circuits neared.
Pedersen had already gone on the attack and continued to do so, despite Wærenskjold often chasing him down and sitting on his wheel.
Skelmose also made an attack but Wærenskjold seemed in control until his frustrating puncture and a slow bike change with 18 km to go.
Pedersen’s aggression finally paid off and he got away from a select group on the final lap around Vejle. He seemed set to win alone but then Skelmose joined him on the climb and the two then worked together to gain as much time as they could on their overall rivals.
Perdersen could have perhaps pulled rank on the current Danish national champion but let Skelmose edge clear on the climb to the finish and the two hugged in celebration as Lidl-Trek dominated.
Saturday’s time trial will surely decide who of the two goes on to win the Tour of Denmark.
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