Here it is the final stage in Denmark. Since it’s rated as a hilly stage the main favorites of the day are Gil, Van Garderen and Rabon. In the GC Cornu seems to have secured at least a podium spot, if not the win, after the time – trial in the third stage. Ignatiev is clearly a better puncheur but he has almost 2 minutes to get back on Cornu
14 riders managed to get away from the pack at the start of the stage, 3 of them were from Ultimate: Sebright, Ericsson, Rizio, Blaudzun, Euser, Rowe, Perry, Duran, Mertens, Ulanowski, Pomer, Page, Weiss and Tennant. Mertens won the first intermediate sprint in front of Duran and Perry
Ericsson seemed to be the only one interested in the KoM points so he had no problems taking the most KoM points on the first climb of the day
The pack lead by Walmart and 100%Me was at more than 7 minutes behind the escapes at that point but it looks very hard to have the same story as yesterday with the last categorized climb of the day looking quite steep
On the next climb Duran tried to keep it up with Ericsson but the Swede was just too strong. With some other 5 points won he is now settle to win the KoM competition
60 kilometers before the finish the pack was only 4 minutes behind the escapes. 4 riders attacked from the pack but they managed to stay in front only for a few kilometers: Wellens, Vansummeren, Rast and Roux
Nydam tried to go in a solo adventure but he wasn’t any luckier
At the last intermediate was a very tight battle Ulanowski got it in front of his team – mate, Rizio, and Page
Jack Wolfskin is now mainly leading the pack between them, but the escapes still have a nice chance with 3 minutes advantage with 35 km to go
Right before the start of the last categorized climb the pack was really close to catch the escapes and some riders got away from the pack to join the leading group. The first one to do so was Tankink
He was followed by a group which included 2 big names, Cornu and Larsson
The pack is really close and more and more riders look like going to join the group: Bewley, Raisin, Lindgren, Van Stayen
But the only one that proved strong enough to do that was Bewley
Right when Bewley joined the group, Tennant attacked, followed by some other escapes: Weiss, Perry, Duran and Tankink
Behind them yesterday’s winner, Ortega, and Van Garderen are also very close to join the group
Tennant is first at the summit, followed by Weiss and Tankink. Perry and Duran are also close
The chasers lead by Cornu and Larsson are 45 seconds behind them
The attacks from the pack continue with Gil looking settle to join the chasing group, while Trusov and Nozal are already there
Ignatiev and Raisin are also coming right behind Gil
Even though they had a nice advantage at the top, Perry, Tennant, Tankink and Weiss were caught only after 1.5 km
The only one that was able to maintain in front was Duran and he enters the last 10 km of the race in a solo lead
Larsson and Cornu are leading the chase, 30 seconds behind him
Gil didn’t manage to join the chasing group and he is now about to be caught by the pack. Ignatiev and Raisin were already back there
As soon as the chasing group reached the final slopes of the day Cornu made one last move
He soon joined Duran, who seems quite tired after being in the leading group the entire day
Ortega and Larsson are coming behind Cornu and Duran
And they caught him on the little downhill before the finish, bringing Nozal, Bewley and Trusov with them
Larsson seems stronger than the others and he makes a small gap, but Cornu is trying to bring him back
And the sprint starts with Larsson in front and with Duran leading the chase as Cornu refuses to sprint at first
Larsson makes quite a big mistake and he stops sprinting in the last kilometer, with Trusov and Cornu coming really fast, whileBewley, the second best sprinter in the group has some difficulties finding his way out
Larsson is caught with 500 meters before the finish by Trusov, who has Nozal and Bewley in his wheel, waiting for a mistake from the Wiggle rider of from Larsson
Trusov was clearly the strongest sprinter in the group so he has no problems taking the lead from Larsson, who seems to be losing a lot of speed at the moment
Trusov takes the win in front of Nozal and Bewley and he looks settle to take the the points jersey and, with a bit of luck, a top 10 place in the GC. Cornu took the fourth place and he is the winner of this year’s Post Danmark Rundt
The chasers were caught by the pack, with Ericsson leading them to the finish line, 39 seconds behind Trusov, which means we have 2 main changes in the GC: Larsson taking the 3rd place from Reus and today’s winner, Trusov, taking the last place in the top 10
