The Mads Pedersen show in stage 4 of the Tour of Denmark
Stage 4 of the Tour of Denmark was a 226.9km stage beginning in Svendborg and finishing in Vejle, taking in 1988 metres of elevation across the stage, with the majority located on the final third of the stage to entice a thrilling finale to proceedings.
The action got underway at 12:30 CET with a frantic start as Lidl-Trek immediately took control of the peloton, targeting the intermediate sprint after 28.8 kilometres. Their plan worked to perfection, with Mads Pedersen claiming the maximum 3 bonus seconds ahead of Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets) and Henrik Pedersen (Uno-X Mobility), stretching his overall lead from 10 to 13 seconds.
After this, Lidl-Trek allowed a breakaway of the day to become established with the most notable rider in the said group being Mads Würtz Schmidt (Denmark), as back in the peloton, Lidl-Trek kept the group under a tight leash.
With 146 kilometres to go, the wind speed with in echelon territory and very briefly there were some splits within the peloton, with accelerations by Japser Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Johan Price-Pejtersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
100 kilometres to the finish, the breakaway was reeled in drastically thanks to the excellent work of Albert Withen Philipsen with the gap sitting at just 41 seconds, meaning riders could successfully bridge across if they desired upon doing so. With the wind still blowing in the mid 20km/h mark, there was a changing of the guard at the front of the peloton with the Belgian team, Alpecin-Deceuninck coming to the foray.
The fireworks began with 78 kilometres remaining when Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) drove a ferocious tempo to launch Mads Pedersen on one of his trademark attacks. Fellow Dane William Blume Levy (Uno-X Mobility) quickly joined him, and the pair surged towards the original breakaway, making contact a little over 50 kilometres from the finish. The front group now comprised Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto), Robbe Ghys (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Enzo Leijnze (Picnic PostNL), Blume Levy, and Mads Würtz Schmidt.
It wasn’t long before Pedersen lit it up again, this time taking only Würtz Schmidt with him as the Danish duo carved out a gap of just under a minute on the peloton. With 30 kilometres to go, Würtz Schmidt could no longer match Pedersen’s final, decisive acceleration, leaving the Lidl-Trek leader alone at the head of the race.
Despite late chase efforts from behind, notably by Axel Zingle (Visma | Lease a Bike), nobody could come close to the phenomenal ride of Pedersen, who powered to a brilliant solo victory in front of his home crowd.
