Copenhagen Sprint 2025

June 22, 2025 The first edition of the Copenhagen Sprint sets out from Roskilde on a 235KM route that is almost entirely flat. The first 120KM takes the riders North to Hillerød before coming back South into Copenhagen with 51KM to go to start five, 10KM local laps around the city. As the race name implies, it is very likely that the finish will be contested by the fast men in a bunch sprint. Many of the top names are present with the exceptions of Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier, and Jonathan Milan who are keeping their powder dry for the Grand Boucle coming in two weeks. It took about 5KM for the break to form on what was a warm and breezy day. The group consisted of Jensen Plowright of Alpecin-Deceuninck, George Jackson of Burgos-Burpellet BH, Victor Vercouillie of Flanders-Baloise, and Mads Andersen and Joshua Gudnitz of the Danish National Team. The crowds were large along the route with people from all the towns coming out to cheer on the race which made a Grand Tour type atmosphere. The break had a maximum gap of around 4 minutes but it was down to 90 seconds with 90KM to go. Cofidis, Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Visma-Lease a Bike, and Jayco AlUla all shared the pace making in the peloton. Jackson dropped out of the break after the second intermediate sprint in Ganløse and by the third and final sprint in Rødovre, the gap was down to 60 seconds. With 55KM to go, the bunch were no longer chasing the break but rather racing themselves for position as they entered the circuit. Through the first crossing of the line, the enormous crowds were banging the barriers and cheering the break with the peloton coming by 40 seconds later. Through the line for 4 laps to go, Plowright and Andersen were the only members of the break remaining but a counter attack from the peloton containing Casper Pedersen of the Danish National Team, Daan Hoole of Lidl-Trek, and Cedric Beullens of Lotto were coming across. The chase group bridged up to the two leaders with 38KM to go but the peloton were closing in at just 20 seconds. The gap was down to 15 seconds as they neared the bell lap but a crash in the peloton near the front took down a number of riders and only about 50 made it through with the rest getting stuck behind the fall. As a result, the gap went back up to over 20 seconds and the break was charging forwards as hard as they could manage. A bit of panic set in to the peloton because resource were reduced with entire teams out of the chase. Cofidis, Picnic-PostNL, and Uno-X Mobility were still working but a number of other teams had disappeared. The break put up an very strong fight, especially Plowright who was in the early break as well, but they were finally dragged back at 1300M from the line with the last pull taken by Jayco AlUla. Uno-X Mobility were best placed through 500M to go but the lead outs were messy and no one was really that well organized. They continued to wind it up but the first to hit out was Dylan Groenewegen of Jayco AlUla. He started his sprint from 250M and was briefly in front but other, more patient, riders were sitting behind. Alexis Renard of Cofidis powered past Groenewegen but it was Jordi Meeus of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe that came around Renard in the last 50M to take the win by half a bike length. Renard held on to second from Emilien Jeannière of TotalEnergies who finished third. Groenewegen ran out of steam from such a ling sprint and faded to seventh by the time he hit the line.