Remco Evenepoel has produced his first big winning ride since breaking his pelvis in a crash 12 months ago, with the young Belgian taking stage 3 at Tour of Denmark today and claiming the race lead after lapping the main bunch on the road.
While he has already won at the highest level since coming back to racing following his Il Lombardia crash last year, his victory today was the first time he won riding dominantly; the way he had been before that crash.
At the end of the 219km stage from Tønder to Vejle, Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was clear on his own, 1:29 up on his nearest challenger with the most of the rest of the field scattered minutes back the road.
On the 5.5km finishing circuit Evenepoel lapped the largest group on the road when he had 1.7km to go and they still had 7.2km to race; the bunch told to pull over and slow to let him pass.
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He had been active off the front of the race in the last hour of racing, and almost crashed on a descent, but with 17km to go when he attacked from the lead group on the hilly finishing circuit he got clear alone.
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And once he was off the front solo he put on the kind of show cycling fans had witnessed repeatedly before his crash last year; looking untouchable as he rode to victory.
With two laps of the finishing circuit remaining he had pulled out a gap of just over 40 seconds on a chase group containing Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma), Tosh van der Sande (Lotto Soudal), Nick van der Lijke (Riwal), Anthon Charmig (Uno-X) and yesterday’s stage winner Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo).
The gap between lone leader and the next man on the road grew to 1:29 on the line. Van der Sande was 1:29 down when he finished on his own in 2nd place after attacking the chasing group.
Then came Van der Lijke and Teunissen in 3rd and 4th, at 1:32, before Pedersen took 5th at 1:41. The win means Evenepoel now leads overall by 1:33 from Van der Sande.
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