July 31, 2026
Today's route is one made of seemingly endless loops that take in just about every hill to be found around the city of Vejle. Nearly the entire 203 km route is rolling up and down and, by the end of the day, the riders will have accumulated 2,500 meters of elevation gain, making this the hardest stage of the five. The majority of the stage weaves itself back and forth across the Vejle river up the hills on either side. There are two categorized climbs each taken on twice. The second is the 700 meter, 9% rise of Vejle - Sovej with the second passage coming 60 km from the finish. Like in the first two days, there is a circuit to be ridden three times with a bonus sprint on the first passage of the line with 30 km to go. Each lap has multiple climbs between 300-600 meters that range from 4-8% so a significantly reduced group is likely to come to the finish together for what is the Queen stage of the race.
Race Summary
In an unusual scene this Summer in Europe, rain was falling at the start in Fredericia and riders were wrapped up in jackets in a vain attempt to stay dry. A Danish quartet went up the road early with Andreas Stokbro of ColoQuick, Aksel Bech Skot-Hansen of Give Steel, and Emil Schandorff Iwersen and Boas Lysgaard of BHS PL-Beton Bornholm. At 90 km to go, they had just 50 seconds left of their 3 minute maximum advantage on the peloton who were blocked across the road and looking quite calm as they approached an 800 meter rise up Sledevej. On the narrow, steep climb, Lysgaard was distanced from the break while the peloton continued in an easy fashion until the gap reached 2 minutes when Modern Adventure picked up the chase.
A huge crash on the downhill off of Sledevej saw at least 20 guys hit the tarmac. Riders were scrambling to rejoin but the front of the peloton was waiting for no one as they charged into Velje and the first passage of the Sovej. At the top, Stokbro took maximum points with Skot-Hansen in second and Iwersen in third while the bunch rode the climb like it was a Spring Classic, full speed into the base for position then slow on the climb.
Stokbro went clear of his break companions on an uncategorized climb with 65 km to go while Visma-Lease a Bike was still leading a controlled peloton behind at 1 minute 20 seconds. Attitude change 6 km later when Ashlin Barry of Visma-Lease a Bike increased the pressure on one of the countless unclassified hills. The back door swung wide open and groups of riders were getting dropped. Over the top, only ten riders were left at the head of the peloton including five from Visma-Lease a Bike. It all turned sideways a few kilometers when Barry took a roundabout too quickly, hit a painted pedestrian crossing, and crashed into the curb. He was the only one to go down but it took the pace out of the group and around 30 dropped riders rejoined the favorites group.
On the next hill with 52 km to go, Unibet-Rose Rockets attacked with Niklas Larsen then a counter went with Matyáš Kopecký which created a gap. William Blume Levy of Uno-X Mobility followed along with Marcus Sander Hansen of BHS PL-Beton Bornholm and they quickly built a lead of 15 seconds. With 47.5 km to go, they bridged up to Stokbro to form a lead group of four with 30 seconds on the Visma-Lease a Bike chase.
The gap stayed between 30-45 seconds until more teams came forward to position coming into the first passage of the finish line. 2 km from the line, the road kicked up followed by a 180 degree turn then a fast downhill into the base of the climb to the finish. When the break reached the final climb on the circuit of the Kiddesvej, it was much harder than it looked on the profile. A few more corners brought Kopecký and company to the finish line where the Czech rider took the bonus seconds. Visma-Lease a Bike brought a strung out, reduced peloton of around 30 riders through the line at 35 seconds.
Back around to the 180 degree turn, the gap to the four leaders was down to 10 seconds and that disappeared on the Kiddesvej when Christophe Laporte put in a huge effort to split up the race for Visma-Lease a Bike. By the finish line with 2 laps to go, only seven riders were in the group with everyone else in groups of two's and three's scrambling behind.
On the back side of the circuit with 17 km to go, race leader Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike went on the attack and was only followed by second overall Lukáš Kubiš of Unibet-Rose Rockets. 4 km later, Alexander Kamp of Uno-X Mobility jumped across but he had Laporte in his wheel to add to the Visma-Lease a Bike firepower. The gap was tenuous to the first chase group and more riders came across including third overall Henrik Pedersen of Uno-X Mobility and Pier-André Côté of NSN Cycling. Søren Kragh Andersen of Lidl-Trek hauled a group of five other riders across and made contact with the van Aert group just around the 180 degree corner. Up the Kiddesvej for the penultimate time, the pace was hard but not as hard as previous ascents. Van Aert led the group of around ten through the bell and continued to pull the group along until 4 km when Laporte attacked. Everyone was ready for the move however and the leaders were still together when they started the climb up to the 180 degree turn with 2 km to go.
Uno-X Mobility took control and led the group through the sharp right turn onto the Kiddesvej for the final time. It wasn't long before van Aert accelerated and broke the group. Kubiš was still there as was Laporte and Henrik Pedersen. Van Aert kept the power down as the gradients eased and gaps slowly formed. Kubiš was the closest but he could not claw back the Belgian who crossed the line first for the third day running with arms stretched out wide. A gap of 2 seconds was recorded to Kubiš for second with Pedersen a further 2 seconds back in third.
With the bonus seconds factored in, van Aert leads Kubiš by 20 seconds which feels insurmountable at this point. Laporte moved into third on the same time as Pedersen at 30 seconds with Kragh Andersen in fifth at 38 seconds.