Jordi Meeus wins a crash affected Copenhagen Sprint

Jordi Meeus (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) was anonymous for the entire race until it really mattered, with impeccable timing to become the first victor of the men's Copenhagen sprint. It was a French delight for the rest of the podium as Alexis Renard (Cofidis) and Emilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies) finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively. The finale of the race was drastically affected after a crash in the last 8km took down almost half of the peloton, including the big pre-race favourite, Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike).

The weekend celebration of cycling in Copenhagen, Denmark, continued, as the inaugural men’s edition of the Copenhagen Sprint got underway. In store for the riders was a 235km effort from Roskilde to Copenhagen, with five laps of the local city-centre circuit to be completed.

The race began with an immediate breakaway from the off with five riders fancying their chances at the breakaway lottery. The breakaway consisted of: Jensen Plowright (Alpecin – Deceuninck), George Jackson (Burgos Burpellet BH), Victor Vercouillie (Team Flanders – Baloise), Mads Andersen (Denmark) and Joshua Gudnitz (Denmark). The breakaway composition was kept under wraps by the peloton with a maximum time gap given to the group of 5 of just 3:45.

When the race passed the 100km to go mark, the gap to the breakaway was rapidly reduced to a gap floating around the 1:30’s. This was thanks to the efforts of Visma | Lease a Bike and Jayco AlUla, working for their leaders, Dutch compatriots, Olav Kooij and Dylan Groenewegen, with Kooij the big pre-race favourite. Soon after, Red Bull - BORA – Hansgrohe also joined the chase for the 26-year-old Belgian, Jordi Meeus, who abandoned the Tour de Suisse on June 21 after winning stage 6.

With just over 40 km remaining and the riders on their laps of the local circuit, the gap to the breakaway fell even further as the breakaway fell to pieces; just Plowright and Andersen remained, with the gap cut to just above 10 seconds. The peloton rode a ferocious pace through the city streets, with the gap to the breakaway slim, Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek), Casper Pedersen (Denmark) and Cedric Beullens (Lotto).

At the 26 km to go mark, Rory Townsend (Q36.5) fell victim to a crash as the gap to the newly formed breakaway went back out to over 30 seconds Approaching the final lap an almighty crash occurred just before the riders crossed the finish line with the pre-race favourite Olav Kooij, among a tremendous number of others were caught up in the pile up.

The peloton then consisted of around 50 riders left heading into the fast finale, which was led by Israel-Premier Tech with Krists Neilands and Mattias Louvel. After the breakaway was finally reeled in, in the last kilometres, it was the Belgian, Jordi Meeus, who pounced at the perfect time to take the victory ahead of Alexis Renard (Cofidis) and Emilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies).

Speaking in his pre-race interview to Domestique Meeus was asked whether he will be at a grand tour this season, he stated "Yeah I hope so, it's a 50/50 whether I will go to the Tour or not."