Takes Over Leader’s Jersey

[30.07 20:19] There was little doubt coming into the second stage of the Tour of Denmark that the Saxo Bank race leaders would be hot favourites for the win again. With a strong, motivated team looking forward to shredding the peloton in the brutal crosswinds, Saxo Bank had no intention of coming out and sitting on their laurels. Rather, they planned to attack and to make their attacks count. After having decimated the peloton in the tough Danish winds, Saxo Bank used the final small circuits around Århus to launch their bid for victory. Overnight race leader Matti Breschel was the first to make a move, laying the groundwork for teammate Nicki Sørensen’s counter-attack which took him to the line for the solo victory. Breschel then put an emphatic period on the day for Saxo Bank by winning the sprint to the line for second place. Sørensen is now in yellow.

Incredible display of strength

“Today the team was incredibly strong,” Sörensen said. “During the race guys like Anders Lund, Kasper Klostergaard, Frank Høj, and Alex Rasmussen rode amazingly to split up the peloton, at the end, the rest was up to us to finish it off.” Unlike the day before, the strong winds played a huge role in softening up the pack. “The course of the early part of the race is not that difficult except for the wind,” Team Director Dan Frost explained. “The wind does make a big difference and our guys really made the most of it.” Having pulverized the main pack down to about 30 riders by the final 15 kilometers of circuits around Århus, Saxo Bank’s game plan could really swing into motion. “On the second lap at the finish, Matti attacked which forced Cervelo to chase very hard,” Frost said. “They did manage to bring him back at which point Niki attacked and took the win at the line by about 20 seconds. Then Matti took the sprint at the line for second place.”

New race leader, but it’s all in the family

“Coming into the stage with Matti as the race leader, tactically we didn’t want any group getting away that didn’t contain Matti, unless of course it was one of us going solo,” Sørensen explained. “So when Matti attacked and was caught, I had been thinking about going myself at that point, we knew we had to make it a hard race for everyone and I think we succeeded very well.” Even though Sørensen now has the race lead, the team still does not plan to sit back and let the race come to them. “It will be a hard stage again tomorrow and I would love to see one of us go out solo and win the stage like today,” Sörensen revealed. “We are by far the strongest team here so I would say, yes, anything less than winning would be a disappointment.”