Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) continued his utter domination of the Tour of Denmark, attacking first to join the breakaway and then going solo for 32 kilometres to win the stage and extend his race lead.
Pedersen was chased to the finish by Antoine L'Hote (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Devo), but the 20-year-old could not catch the Lidl-Trek rider and was himself reeled in and passed just before the line by Tibor del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck). L'Hote held on for third on the stage.
Pedersen will head into the final stage with a generous 58-second lead over Niklas Larsen (BHS-PL Beton Bornholm) and another 10 seconds over Lukaš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets).
With 226.9 kilometres on tap from Svendborg to Vejle, the breakaway took a long time to form, as Lidl-Trek sought to keep the peloton together for Pedersen to contest the intermediate sprint in Faaborg after 28.8 kilometres.
With the sprint in the bag, there was an immediate attack with Mads Würtz Schmidt (Denmark) leading the charge. He was joined by Stian Rosenlund (AIRTOX-Carl Ras). Behind, more riders were scrambling to bridge the gap.
After a brief chase, five riders joined the pair: Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto), Robbe Ghys (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Enzo Leijnse (Picnic-PostNL), Matias Malmberg (AIRTOX-Carl Ras), and Emil Toudal (Team ColoQuick).
The breakaway built up a lead of over four minutes until the gap began to plummet in the hilly final 80km.
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With 68km to go, Pedersen launched an attack and was joined by William Blume Levy (Uno-X Mobility). As they worked to close the gap, Malmberg was dropped from the leading group and latched onto the two chasers.
The two groups united with 52km to go but the detente did not last long. Pedersen's relentless pace shot Ghys from the move, then put Leijnse into trouble. Next came Blume Levy, and before long, everyone except Pedersen and Würtz Schmidt were back in the peloton.
As the race entered the closing circuits, Pedersen left his companion behind on the steep finishing climb. Despite being chased in earnest by the whole of Visma-Lease a Bike, Pedersen held a 43-second advantage with 25km to go.
The gap was down to 25 seconds with two laps to go but the peloton had shattered on the climb and that took some of the wind out of the chase's sails, and Pedersen quickly restored his 40-plus-second lead.
On the penultimate climb, L'Hote attacked but the reduced peloton could not get organised. With 7km to go, Pedersen was still 40 seconds ahead and gaining time and L'Hote halfway between him and the bunch as more attacks flew behind but fell short.
Inside 3km to go, Pedersen had only added to his gap and went into the final kilometre still with plenty of time to be assured of the stage win.
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
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