Mads Pedersen (Trek Segafredo) has put in a big watts sprint at the end of stage 2 of Tour de Denmark to come away with victory, as his nearest rivals were lucky not to crash.
At the end of what was a war of attrition over 189.6km into Sønderborg the field had been whittled right down on the undulating roads. Pedersen picked his moment perfectly, opening his sprint on the rise to the line before anyone else and taking a decisive stage win.
Just behind him yesterday's stage winner, and race leader, Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) was itching to come off the Dane's wheel in a bid to pass him but found himself impeded to his right by Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka NextHash).
The Italian moved slight to his left in the sprint, which closed the door on Groenewegen and resulted in the two riders making contact with each other on the cobbled uphill sprint.
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Nizzolo looked like he may come off the bike and Groenewegen, who is not long back from a nine-month for causing a crash at the Tour de Pologne last year, did not push his luck once contact was made.
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However, as he crossed the line he shook his head and gesticulated at the Italian, with Pedersen ahead of them both celebrating his win in a sprint suited to the power sprints as much as the fastest men.
Groenewegen holds the race lead, by four seconds, from Nizzolo ahead of tomorrow's stage 3, which takes the riders 219.2km into Vejle, featuring a lumpy finishing circuit. While Mark Cavendish, who was runner-up yesterday, made the front group today the Deceuninck-QuickStep rider could only manage 15th place.
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