Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) opened up his home stage race at the Tour of Denmark perfectly, winning stage 1 from a reduced-group sprint after a tactically well played finale alongside teammate Mattias Skjelmose into Rønne.
A nine-rider group fought out the stage victory, made up of four men from the early breakaway and five who got away in the final 35km after Pedersen lit up the action on the third lap up Helligpeder (0.7 km at 7.4%) climb.
Lidl-Trek had the numeric advantage with their two Danes making it into the eventual race-winning move, which allowed them to mark moves in the finale and sprint with the former World champion.
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Victor Vercouillie (Flanders-Baloise) made a final bid for glory in the final kilometre, but Skjelmose brought him back with 250 metres to go, also serving as a lead-out, with Pedersen launching his sprint to take a clear victory.
Slovakian national champion Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets) finished second in the small group sprint on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, with Conrad Haugsted (ColoQuick) in third.
The main peloton arrived at the finish 38 seconds behind the leaders.
"We can't complain. It was a really good group, and we went across on the second time up the climb, and there were a lot of GC guys in the second group. Everyone was committed to working and making as much time as possible in the peloton," said Pedersen.
"From the last 1k on, there was a bit of attacking, and Skjelly did an amazing lead-out, so what a day. We talked about going to the finish without losing any time and being in the mix for the win, then we would be happy, because you could lose the GC but not necessarily win it.
"But to come out with 35-40 seconds on the peloton, it's a perfect start to the race."
How it unfolded
Action kicked off at the 2025 Tour of Denmark from Nexø, with the first stage taking place on Bornholm, known as the 'Sunshine Island' a five-hour ferry boat ride from Copenhagen.
A sprint was possible in Rønne but not guaranteed, with the first half of the 178.3km being mostly flat, and the latter half offering chances to attack on narrow undulating roads.
A six-man break got up the road in the first 15km: Victor Vercouillie (Flanders-Baloise), Marius Innhaug Dahl (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Development Team), Magnus Bak Klaris (AIRTOX-Carl Ras), Conrad Haugsted (ColoQuick), Mārtiņš Pluto (BEAT) and Julius Johansen (Denmark).
Lidl-Trek took over on the front for much of the chase, starting with home favourite Mads Pedersen. With 62km to go, they had reduced the gap down to just 50 seconds to the five remaining in front, with Pluto dropped.
A hilly closing 50km of the stage, with three laps up the Helligpeder climb (0.7km at 7.4%), led to splits in the bunch, with Søren Kragh Andersen attacking off the front for Lidl-Trek.
This was short-lived, though, and with 35km to go, Pedersen reignited the action himself on the short climb, with only Slovakian national champion Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets) able to follow.
Other riders bridged across including another Lidl-Trek rider Mattias Skjelmose, William Blume Levy (Uno-X Mobility) and Niklas Larsen (BHS-PL Beton Bornholm), forming a five-man chase group in pursuit of the five in the lead.
Johansen and Klaris went clear from the original break up the last lap up the Helligpeder, with 22km to go and a 38-second lead to defend from the group containing Pedersen.
The remnants of both groups of five came together to form a nine-rider break in the lead of the stage, with Dahl dropping first in the final 10km run into Rønne.
Several attacks were tried, even into the final kilometre by Vercouillie, but the strength of the two Lidl-Trek proved too much. Skjelmose loyally chased down Vercouillie and acted as a perfect lead out.
Pedersen sprinted to the win off the back of great work to cross the line with his arms in the air several bike lengths ahead of his rivals.
Pedersen took the first race leader's blue jersey and will wear it during the 110.5km second stage from Rødovre to Gladsaxe around the country roads north of Copenhagen.
Results
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