Ethan Vernon picked up his seventh top 10 of the season.
The Wolfpack returned at the Danmark Rundt with bib number one in the team, after Remco Evenepoel’s success last year, and our squad was again prominent on the 226.2km stage 1 which took the peloton from Allerød to Køge, a small seaport lying southwest of Copenhagen.
Tim Declercq, who was making just his second outing since the National Championships, assumed pace-setting duties right after the start and together with delegates from other teams controlled the gap of the six escapees, making sure they would be brought back on the final lap of the local circuit.
Inside the final kilometers, a combination of cobbles and narrow roads as teams were jostling for position at the front of the peloton sparked a big crash in the bunch, Declercq and James Knox being among those involved, the Belgian suffering some abrasions in the pile-up. Fortunately, they both got up and back on their bikes, completing the stage, which Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s Ethan Vernon concluded in eighth place for his seventh top 10 since turning pro at the beginning of the year.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
