Söderqvist wins windy time trial as Mads Pedersen retains Denmark GC lead
The young Swedish champions blasted to victory taking some excellent scalps, including Alec Segaert and that of his team mate Mads Pedersen who retains the overall lead with two stages remaining.
Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek) won the stage 3 time trial at the Tour of Denmark on Thursday, setting a time of 15:28 on the 14.3km course.
While Alec Segaaert Lotto) was second, just under six seconds back, Söderqvist was among a cadre of Lidl-Trek riders to set top times, with Mads Pedersen third and Mattias Skjemose and Søren Kragh Andersen also in the top 10.
Pedersen continues to lead the general classification after winning the race’s opening stage from a late breakaway. Niklas Larsen (BHS-PS Beton Bornholm) is second overall, only 10 seconds back. Though Larsen won the GC in 2019, he’s now better known for his exploits on the the track where is a world champion in the team pursuit. He also finished second to Pederson in national time trial championships earlier this year.
Johan Price Pejtersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) set the early benchmark, the Danish rider starting 15th of the 118 rolling down the the ramp in Kerteminde on the island of Funen, initially setting the fastest intermediate time before stopping the clock on the finish line in 15:46. Early on, he was pushed close by Søren Wærenskjold (UNO-X Mobility) who won Wednesday’s second stage in a bunch sprint, but as the day went by and the wind shifted, a series of riders overhauled his time at the intermediate time point.
How it unfolded
Stage three of the 35th PostNord Tour of Denmark saw the race tackle a 14.3km time trial. The route, starting and finishing in the small town of Kerteminde, close to the city of Odense on the island of Funen, was almost pan flat with just 51m of vertical ascent. It wasn’t too technical either, though it would take riders a little while to get up to speed, with six tight corners inside the opening kilometre calling for focus ahead of the more straightforward latter part.
Oscar Bluhm (Give Steel-2M) was first off the ramp, the home rider eventually hitting the intermediate timing point 9:41 and stopping the clock in 18:20. However, before he was unable to reach the leader’s hot seat before other eclipsed his time, chief among them Lucas Toftemark (Airtox-Carl Ras) setting a time of 16:13.
Toftemark’s time stood for a while, though former World and European Under 23 TT champion Johan Price Pejtersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) blew his compatriot’s time out of the water with a time of 15:46.
One of the pre-race favourites, stage two winner Søren Wærenskjold (UNO-X Mobility) ran Price-Pejtersen close, trailing him by four seconds at the intermediate check, but eventually finished six seconds down. Riding for the Danish national team, Julius Johansen set the fastest time at the intermediate split, but was unable to hold on to take the lead.
