Welcome in the North! Well, not that far North, one could say, as we only are in Denmark for five flat days, more or less (more or less flat, not more or less days, I’m not sure the riders will be too keen to stay here more than necessary).

The first two stages will be for the sprinters. The first one will go from Darup, south of the town and the fjord of Roskilde, and will go with some detours at the far East, to Frederiksberg and its palace, landlocked in the capital city of Copenhagen.

The second one will stay on the same island, but on the other side! We’ll go from Korsor, very close to the famous Storebaelt, and go up north to Asnaes.

Another stage should go to the sprinters: the fourth one, from Holstebro to Torring. But we’ll be in Jutland, on the continent by now.

So, you’ll ask. Who are the favorites for these stages? Well, let’s see!

Name	FL	ST	RS	RC	SP	AC
Asbjorn Kragh Andersen	77	70	74	78	81	77
Sondre Holst Enger	73	71	73	77	81	78
Kristoffer Halvorsen	76	74	71	80	81	80
Marco Haller	72	72	71	76	80	79
Niccolo Bonifazio	79	68	75	71	80	80
Tom Van Asbroeck	75	75	72	79	80	78
Jiankun Liu	74	76	69	80	80	80
Fabio Jakobsen	74	75	73	81	80	80

So yeah, small fav list, but that’s not for a lack of talents in the race, behind these eights, the field is stacked! Among these though, Halvorsen and Bonifazio maybe are the biggest shot at the points jersey and at winning the stages.
Among those who are not in this list, Reinhardt and Perera probably are the most capable to challenge the biggest favorites.


It might seem cliché to say that, but it verified last year. The race probably won’t be won in Vejle, after 175 km of bumpy riding from Grejsdal, which, if my cards are right, is only 5 km away. I have to talk to the organizer of this race. Anyway, the stage is too hard for most sprinters, but it should not create too big gaps that won’t be closed down in stage 5. Though, those who lose too much time might already say goodbye to the GC.

Name	MO	HI	ST	RS	RC	SP	AC
Tejay Van Garderen	70	80	75	72	67	68	76
Oleksandr Prevar	71	80	77	70	68	67	73
Kristian Haugaard Jensen	70	80	77	73	71	66	76
Sergey Chernetskiy	71	79	80	69	70	63	71
Lucas Eriksson	67	78	78	74	75	65	76
Michael Storer	75	78	72	73	73	64	74
Jasper Stuyven	63	77	75	67	68	66	74
Simon Pellaud	65	77	74	68	71	65	70
Kasper Asgreen	66	77	70	69	67	64	74
Olivier Le Gac	69	77	73	74	71	64	69

Not so stacked a field, which is quite logical as there’s only one stage to win here, and not much hope for the GC. The trio of Van Garderen, Prevar and Jensen will have all eyes on them to make the peloton explode and to sprint to victory. At this game, Van Garderen seems like the best placed, but he might be challenged by Eriksson, if the Swede makes it to the finish.


So, if the punchers won’t win the GC, who is it for? I’m sure all of you noticed the 35 km ITT on day 5. Everything will play in Grindsted. It’s pan-flat, so the stage will go to a specialist of the discipline.

Name	FL	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC
Luke Durbridge	73	67	81	73	74	70
Yoann Paillot	70	71	80	75	74	68
Mario Gonzalez Salas	70	60	80	74	76	67
Eddie Dunbar	69	76	79	74	77	78
Marcel Kittel	73	62	79	71	67	63
Justas Beniusis	71	60	79	71	73	72
Rohan Dennis	72	75	78	73	75	67
Benoit Cosnefroy	76	71	78	78	81	72
Lennard Kämna	71	71	78	76	73	75
Rei Onodera	74	69	78	75	74	71
Victor Campenaerts	71	69	78	71	73	72
Tom Dumoulin	71	68	78	75	76	70
Michael Christodoulos	72	68	78	75	69	70
Benjamin Thomas	73	66	78	75	73	70
Szymon Sajnok	74	65	78	70	76	71
Arturs Belevics	76	64	78	73	72	73
Rasmus Sterobo	70	63	78	74	69	69
Oleksandr Golovash	72	60	78	72	69	66

Quite a nice list for this last stage! All might come to who’s the less tired after four days of racing. OK, that’s not that much in a world where riders sometime are on the bike for three weeks with much harder stages. But nonetheless.
Still, Durbridge should be the top favorites, and hi manager with want him to deliver.
He might not be a contender for the GC though. This role comes to Dunbar, who is the top favorite at this level. The two Frenchmen Paillot and Cosnefroy, the latter losing the GC on the last day despite his TT skills, might be secondary contenders, along Dennis and Kämna.
For the young rider jersey, Christodoulos has some advantage on his competitors.

Well, that’s it for today. Let’s meet soon on the roads of Denmark for the Post Danmark Rund!