Pedersen and Skjelmose take control of Tour of Denmark after tactical masterclass

The first stage was a classic light route, so Lidl-Trek seized every opportunity to climb and outpace the real sprinters. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Milan Menten (Lotto), Fabio Jakobsen (Picnic PostNL), and Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) were skillfully outridden, leaving Pedersen in pole position for a sprint of nine.

The Dane won the sprint convincingly, starting his celebration very early. It was Pedersen's tenth victory of 2025, after a dominant May with four stage wins and the points classification. He also won Gent-Wevelgem this year, became Danish time trial champion, and won stages in Provence (plus the overall victory) and Paris-Nice.

“In the end, we can't complain,” said Pedersen with a sense of understatement to his own team, Lidl-Trek. “We rode away on the second climb with a good group, with only a few GC contenders. Many were also behind, so everyone in our group wanted to work to gain as much time as possible on the peloton.” After the first nine, several groups arrived, more than half a minute to just under three-quarters of a minute behind.

Lidl-Trek was obviously the team to beat in the last kilometer and a half, and Pedersen spoke of a “brilliant lead-out” by Skjelmose. “What a day. As a team, we wanted to be in the final and, above all, not lose any time in the wind. Today, you could lose the classification, so this is a perfect start to the race. As Danes, we knew what the roads were like, which often get narrower. That makes it more difficult. Fortunately, we had to make the race, and so we were always at the front.”

And so Lidl-Trek suddenly has two aces up its sleeve for the remaining four stages, with Pedersen and Skjelmose already having built up a nice lead over some of the others. “We've been in this situation before, and it's always good to have multiple options. We're in a perfect situation, with tomorrow (Wednesday, ed.) normally a short sprint stage and then the time trial. After that, we'll see how we fight for the leader's jersey.”