The first stage of this year’s Tour of Denmark is held in the city of Esbjerg at the surrounding countryside. It’s a flat-no-major-obstacles 175 kilometres stage so the most likely scenario is mass sprint finale. No surprise predictions here.
We have two former winners of this race here. Kai Reus and Dominique Cornu. They both secured their wins in the traditional stage 5 time trial and if it should come down to a decision here again, then David Zabriskie is definitely worth the mention as he lines up for his first Post Danmark Rundt. There are others aswell though. World Champion Lars Boom and Gustav Larsson of Continental outfit Vattenfall.
Any way we should be in for a good race!
The first rider to try and get away is Sebastian Lang
The German doesn’t get far but at least we’re underway! The next attack is a rather surprising one. Has Carlos Betancourt been studying the race’s history books and decided he needs to gain time in every stage if he is to matter in the GC? It sure looks like because he and Olympic Omnium Champion and home-favourite Lasse Norman Hansen gets away off the front!
Not for long though as the pack is also controlling that move. A list of riders including Anders Lund Fumiyuki Beppu Freddy Cruz Sergey Chernetskiy Adrian Laidler Robert Bush Giorgio Brambilla Daniel Schorn Kwok Taiji Nishitani
Tries to get away. Japanse team Meiji looks very determined to put a rider in the break and they do succeed as Nishitani manages to hit the winning move alongside Brambilla, Laidler, Cruz and Lund. We have our break of the day.
In the pack airBaltic and Team UPC are doing the early pacing.
At the first of two intermediate sprint primes Nishitani takes the six points ahead of Brambilla and Cruz. At this point with 107 kilometres to go they are leading the pack by 4’28. ING is now at the front.
Meanwhile we catch a glimpse of Amex’s Matti Breschel, he could be a guy to watch here, but it would seem like he has to lead out his team’s main sprinter Danilo Kupfernagel.
At this point the gap to the break up front peaks at around the six-minute mark with just under 100 kilometres left of this opening stage. It’s UPC and ING hitting the front injecting some pace.
At the final intermediate sprint it’s Brambilla taking the six points and a shared virtual lead in that competition with Nishitani who finishes second ahead of Freddy Cruz who once more has to settle for 3rd place.
It’s still UPC and ING doing most of the work to reel in the breakaway, but also Rothaus has brought a man forward as they are clearly looking to Vantomme for the win today. With 40 kilometres in the break’s advantage is down to just 2’23!
With 13 kilometres left it’s almost over and Laidler realizes this and puts in final dig to try and stay clear.
He is then the last breakaway rider to get caught but it does happen though six kilometres later as we are looking to settle the first stage in a mass sprint. It’s Vueling at the front positioning Kennaugh nicely for this one!
Right at the front it’s Martin Reimer with Martin Pedersen and then Kennaugh sitting nicely in 3rd spot. Right behind is the airBaltic train with Matt Rowe, while Vantomme is just on their outside. A bit further back and not very well positioned for this sprint is Manan. Also on the outside sitting behind a Vueling rider is Guarnieri.
Martin Pedersen releases as Reimer uses up his last bit of power!
Suddenly Vantomme and Guarniere are sitting in great positions to come around Kennaugh. Matt Rowe has a bit of work to do as he is getting boxed in at the barriers. Krasnov of Tinkoff is also in that huddle with Kip and Manan some way back.
Whoops! It seems like Vantomme has lost the wheel of Kennaugh! And here comes Rowe on the inside as he is being lead-out perfectly by Mitch Docker! Kennaugh has come off the wheel of Pedersen now though as he has launched his sprint. It looks like to be between these two eventhough Vantomme is also gaining a lot of speed!
Kennaugh takes it! Rowe in 2nd ahead of Vantomme in 3rd who recovers from losing Kennaugh’s wheel to take 3rd place. Manan and Drujon rounds out the Top 5.
So first leader’s jersey of this race goes to Brit Peter Kennaugh
Seems like the reporter wasn't paying attention the whole way through today as Rene Mandri of airBaltic is way behind today finishing more than 15 minutes behind Kennaugh. If he had any hopes of doing a good GC, those are gone now.
