Our rider soloed to a beautiful victory, adding to the individual time trial title conquered last year.
Kasper Asgreen took his second win of the season, almost six months after his remarkable Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne success, at the end of a great day of racing in Middelfart, where this year’s Danish Championships were held.
Coming off a strong Critérium du Dauphiné, Kasper lined out at the start together with Mikkel Honoré and defending champion Michael Mørkøv, thus giving Deceuninck – Quick-Step several cards to play on the hilly course that presented plenty of opportunities to attackers. The 198km race was full gas from the beginning and abounded in attacks that ripped the peloton to pieces long before the final laps. One by one, our riders tried their luck and despite being joined by others or reeled in by the bunch, managed to reduce the pack to two dozen or so men.
Eventually, the key move came 15 kilometers from home, when Kasper Asgreen zipped clear from a twelve-man group featuring both his teammates and was joined only by Andrea Kron (Riwal Securitas). With Michael Mørkøv shutting down moves from behind, the two expanded their margin to twenty seconds, before Kasper rode Kron off his wheel under the flamme rouge, arriving at the finish arms aloft and beaming with happiness. A couple of seconds later, Mørkøv sprinted from the chasing group to take third and make it two Deceuninck – Quick-Step riders on the podium.
“The race was very hard. We had a lot of showers, the course was tricky, and to add to all this, the action started early, with 80 kilometers to go, when some teams decided to put pressure on the peloton. Our team stayed calm and attacked only with 50 kilometers to go. Then I escaped together with Kron and accelerated in the last kilometer, opening a gap on that technical part in the city”, said the first Danish rider in the last 24 years to hold both road race and ITT titles at the same time. “This victory makes me so happy! A big thanks to my teammates, we rode perfectly and I couldn’t have done it without them. I can’t wait to ride in this nice jersey!”
Photo credit: ©Nils Meilvang
Kasper Asgreen 