Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) won the finale stage 5 and the overall title at the Tour of Denmark. The Frenchman stormed to the victory on the steep uphill slopes of the final ascent to take the stage win ahead of overnight leader Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) and Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Trek-Segafredo) in Vejle.
It was all-or-nothing for Laporte who went into the stage tied on time with Sheffield in the overall classification. His stage victory secured him a 10-second time bonus and the overall title at the Tour of Denmark, overhauling Sheffield by four seconds, while Skjelmose Jensen finished third at nine seconds back.
How it unfolded
The fifth and final stage of the Tour of Denmark offered a 126.6km route from Give to Vejle with four climbs; Østengaard (44 km), Chr. Winthersvej (49.5 km), Holtum Mølle (58.5 km), Gl. Kongevej & Chr. Winthersvej (72.8 km), along with intermediate sprints before contesting four finishing circuits in Vejle. Time bonus sprints were up for grabs at Jerlev (29km) and in Vejle (75km).
Magnus Sheffield (Ineos-Grenadiers), who led the race since winning the stage 2 time trial, went into the day with the same time as runner-up Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma), there seconds ahead of Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Trek-Segafredo) and 15 seconds ahead of is Ineos teammate Geraint Thomas.
Runner-up in the points classification Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) took the full points in Jerlev, moving just ahead of classification leader Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck). A breakaway of eight riders emerged in the opening hour of racing that included Kooij along with Nickolas Zukowsky (Human Powered Health), Jens Keukeleire (EF Education-EasyPost), Mathias Bregnhøj (Riwal Cycling Team), Mads Andersen (Team ColoQuick), Otto Vergaerde (Trek-Segafredo), Tim Declercq (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), and Anders Foldager (Biesse-Carrera).
Foldager took his opportunity over the top of the Østengaard (1.4km à 5.3%), Chr. Winthersvej (0.4km à 12.7%) and Holtum Mølle (1.1km à 2.8%) ascents to pick up the full mountain points, but he was not in contention to take the jersey from leader Rasmus Bøgh Wallin (Restaurant Suri – Carl Ras) who had 64 points.
It was Bregnhøj who led the breakaway over the steeper Gl. Kongevej & Chr. Winthersvej (0.6km à 11.4%) ascent and through the intermediate sprint in Vejle with 75.8km to go, with the gap to the break dropping…
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