Lars Bak went into the final stage of the Tour of Denmark sitting in 6th overall but the Dane refused to give up in what is usually a sprint stage. He was rewarded for his aggressive riding by taking second for the second year in a row after having played a key role in turning the race upside down.

Lars Bak joined a breakaway in the final stage of the Tour of Denmark and moved up to the second place in GC. He was fifth in the stage.

At the start the Lotto Belisol rider was sixth at 40 seconds of leader Manuele Boaro. Two teammates were in the top ten as well. Sean De Bie stood on place four at 15 seconds and trainee Tiesj Benoot seventh at 44 seconds.

The last stage took the riders from Kalundborg to Frederiksberg, where ten laps of six kilometers had to be covered. It took a while before a break was formed. Lotto Belisol wanted to keep the peloton together for the intermediate sprints. Sean De Bie picked up one bonification second. 75 kilometers from the end a front group of thirteen was formed with Lars Bak.

Together with Rasmus Quaade he left his fellow companions behind in the last kilometers, but they rejoined. Nicola Boem won the sprint of the front group. Valerio Agnoli got second and Martin Mortensen third.

Michael Valgren Andersen, who was also part of the breakaway, is the overall winner. Bak is, just like last year, second. He stands at fifteen seconds of Andersen. With Sean De Bie (sixth) and Tiesj Benoot (tenth) there are two other Lotto Belisol riders in the top ten of the overall classification.

"Of course I wanted to win, but it was not so easy," Bak said. "This morning I didn't expect to stand on the podium. A stage win was of course the goal in this race and then finish as high as possible in GC.

"Sean De Bie rode a really good time trial yesterday evening and was fourth before this last stage. The plan was to get him on the podium via the bonification seconds. After the two intermediate sprints, in which he took one second and stayed fourth, we started racing.

"I got in a group of thirteen, in which I was second best in GC. The cooperation wasn't perfect. In the last one and a half lap there were lots of attacks. I followed the move of Rasmus Quaade. But the others didn't let us go.

"It wasn't easy to save energy for the sprint, because I wanted to take as many seconds on the bunch as possible. Of course I would also have liked to win the stage.

"This second place in GC was the maximum the team could get today. I'm second overall and I'm happy with that. I was 40 seconds down this morning, it's difficult to perform miracles. This is nice."

"In this last stage we succeeded in getting a man on the podium of GC," sports director Mario Aerts said. "We'd loved to have won a stage, but due to the crash of Kris Boeckmans on day one we lost our top sprinter.

"We are satisfied, also with the young riders. De Bie is sixth overall and Benoot tenth. Very nice for them. Kurt Van de Wouwer had told us Benoot is a big talent. He lived up to our expectations, he wore the jersey of best young rider two days. His future looks promising.

"Oliver Naesen was working fulltime up till now, this is all new to him. He worked hard for the team. We are very satisfied about the two trainees. Sean De Bie was third in GC at a certain point. He rode a very good time trial and got fifth. He competed against some big talents."