August 1, 2026
The character of today's fourth stage from Rudkøbing to Faaborg is very similar, although less difficult, than yesterday's finish in Vejle. The first 80 km consists of two laps around the start city of Rudkøbing on Langeland island. Both bonus sprints will take place there before the riders cross the Rudkøbing Channel to the island of Siø then across the Siø Strait to Tåsinge. A long coastal road takes the riders through Svendborg then West to the finish circuits around Faaborg. The riders will enter the circuit with 48 km to go and pass the finish line for the first of three laps 6 km later. The first half of the lap climbs up the Ulvsbjerg and the Nørreskov, both short and below 5% average. The second half of each lap is slightly downhill to a roundabout at 400 meters to go then a gently curving right bend into the streets of Faaborg and the finish by the marina.
Race Summary
The rain cleared overnight leaving a beautiful day full of sunshine and cooler temperatures around 19C (66F). A hectic start with a bit of wind saw the race still together for both bonus sprints. No one of consequence took the first sprint but the second, with 102 km to go, was won by Henrik Pedersen of Uno-X Mobility ahead of Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike. With the extra second over Laporte, Pedersen moved into sole ownership of third overall by 1 second. After the sprint, a break was able to get established which contained seven riders. In the group was Sébastien Grignard of Lotto Intermarché, Storm Ingebrigtsen of Uno-X Mobility, Stian Rosenlund of Airtox-Carl Ras, Tommaso Bessega of Polti-VisitMalta, Chris Juul Jensen of the Danish National Team, Finnish National Champion Axel Källberg of Lucky Sport, and Francesco Carollo of Swatt Club. With 89 km to go, the break had 2 minutes 15 seconds on the peloton with Visma-Lease a Bike doing the work to keep the race tight.
Visma-Lease a Bike got help from Flanders Baloise and Alpecin-Premier Tech in the chase but the gap was remarkably stable at 2 minutes as they travelled through the sparcly populated agricultural areas of the Fyn island. Once in Faaborg, the weekend crowds were huge to receive the riders at the finish line for the 3 local laps. The gap back to the peloton was still hanging around 1 minute 45 seconds with the bunch riding calmly under no real pressure or urgency to accelerate.
The circuit was full of tight roads between tall hedges with countless lefts and rights making positioning crucial. Visma-Lease a Bike and Unibet-Rose Rockets completely blocked the road for the ascent up the KOM and the break was able to push on and increase their lead up to 2 minutes once again. Carollo was dropped in the process but the other six were working well and rolling evenly through and off.
Back around to take 2 laps to go, the break had extended their gap to 2 minutes 30 seconds which was getting nearly out of hand for the peloton to have any chance to bring them back. Alpecin-Premier Tech put two fresh riders into the chase and by the top of the KOM with 20.5 km to go, a full minute had been cut off of the advantage. When the bell rang for the leading six riders at 14 km remaining, they had 1 minute 20 seconds with Alpecin-Premier Tech still the only ones working to bring the race back together for a sprint.
Swatt Club started to pull very hard in the peloton along with Lidl-Trek and the gap tumbled. The pressure was getting to the break who started to attack each other with 9 km to go. Källberg went solo and reached the top of the hill at 6.5 km to go just to be rejoined by Juul Jensen, Bessega, Grignard, and Ingebrigtsen. At 4 km to go, the gap was down to 10 seconds as Swatt Club and Unibet-Rose Rockets were both trying to attack from the peloton. Visma-Lease a Bike sewed up all the splits in the peloton but only around 30 riders were left in the group. 1 km later, Ingebrigtsen jumped clear of the break and he got a gap. He maintained 14 seconds under 1 km to go and the speed just wasn't quick enough in the bunch to catch the Norwegian. Ingebrigtsen time trialed his way through the last kilometer into the barriers with more than enough time to sit up and soak in the atmosphere and gravity of his second professional win. Bessega won the sprint for second 15 seconds later ahead of Källberg who both were visibly frustrated by missing the winning move. Jensen Plowright of Alpecin-Premier Tech took the field sprint for sixth place, 20 seconds down on Ingebrigtsen.
The only change in GC came at the bonus sprint where Henrik Pedersen moved ahead of Christophe Laporte by 1 second to take third overall with just one pancake flat day remaining.