Manuele Boaro took his first professional victory when he emerged as the strongest in the Tour of Denmark queen stage. Being a strong time triallist, the Italian now wants to win the race overall.

Mostly known for his TT skills, Manuele Boaro would have been tipped to take his first professional victory in the individual discipline. However, the Italian broke the ice in unexpected circumstances when he used his climbing legs to win the Tour of Denmark queen stage and put himself in the perfect position to win the race overall.

Riding for the big home team Tinkoff-Saxo, Manuele Boaro saw his teammates make the race hard and stage favourite Matti Breschel rode a very aggressive race on the 5.5km finishing circuit that was tackled thrice and whose short, steep 21% climb was set to make a big selection. Meanwhile, Boaro hid in the peloton before making his own move the final time up the ascent.

No one could match the strong Italian who opened a gap over a select group that included his teammate Breschel. Putting his TT skills to good use, he held off his chasers by 12 seconds, with Breschel winning the sprint over Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Belisol) to make it a Tinkoff-Saxo 1-2.

With just two flat stages and a TT left, Boaro now targets the overall win and is pleased to have put yesterday's disappointment behind him as he mistakenly celebrated a win in stage 2.

“It’s my first win so I’m really excited. I attacked just before going in on the climb and I knew I could go all the way without exploding. Entering the finish line, I still thought they would go past me but I had the gap and I double-checked to see if this really was the final lap. Yesterday was just a rehearsal for me. I’m in good shape and I’m here to win. We have a strong team and I’m looking forward to the time trial Saturday. We still have three guys for the GC and the GC is still open,” said Manuele Boaro.

Boaro now leads with 18 seconds ahead of Lotto-Belisol’s Tiesj Benoot. The race ends Sunday.

"After yesterday's mistake, it feels much better," he told CyclingQuotes at the finish. "Today was a good day for me and my team. I am very happy. I am not pleased with yesterday but today things are much metter. It is really wonderful to take a real stage win.

"My speciality are the time trials. After today's stage we will take it day by day. I feel good but we will see how it goes. Of course I target the overall win but we will take it day by day.

"I will try to win the race overall. I have a good feeling and we have a strong team which is important. Bjarne [Riis] is here and today we took the win but we need to see what happens tomorrow."

“It was a team win," sports director Lars Michaelsen said. "The boys were always one step ahead of everyone else and we had several cards to play in the finale but Manuele was both the right winner and the strongest rider today. He’s the right winner because he’s one of the strongest time triallists in the bunch and the TT is going to be crucial even though it’s short."

“I said to myself before the stage that I was better off waiting instead of launching an early attack but suddenly I found myself in a small chase group even before entering the local circuit," Christopher Juul said. "However, I didn’t spend too much energy in there and I had enough fuel left in the tank to keep up with the chasers behind Manuele."