Vordingborg was host to the Danish championships this week, and today the men found a successor to Sebastian Lander (BMC Racing Team).

The 199,1 km were divided into 7 laps of 21,5 km and 6 laps of a smaller 8,1 km circuit. Having to defend his title without teammates, Sebastian Lander was the first rider to break away only 10 km into the race. Several others followed, and a front group of 8 riders formed. Apart from Lander, it contained Christopher Juul Jensen (Team Saxo-Tinkoff), André Steensen (Cult Energy), Rasmus Mygind (Team Tre-For), Nikola Aistrup (Concordia Forsikring-Riwal), Lasse Norman Hansen (Blue Water Cycling) and the Designa Køkken-Knudsgaard teammates Alexander Mørk and Mathis Johansson.

The gap to the peloton varied, going up to four minutes at one point. In the bunch, several riders tried to get free, but none of these attacks succeeded. At the start of the sixth of the seven larger laps, with half the race done, Lander attacked, leading to the cohesion in the front group being broken. The advantage over the peloton came down to one minute, and Michael Valgren Hansen (Cult Energy) took the opportunity to bridge to the front group. The race was now clearly on, and the pace picked up, which lead to the peloton breaking up into several smaller groups.

When the dust had settled, 32 riders were in front, including the early break, riders from 6 of the 7 Danish Continental teams and Team Saxo-Tinkoff, as well as Alex Rasmussen (Garmin-Sharp). The most notable absentees were Jakob Fuglsang and newly-crowned ITT champion Brian Vandborg (Cannondale). They made good use of the crosswinds to build an advantage of 1:10.

Jakob Fuglsang led the chase, only helped by Vandborg, and got the gap down to 30 seconds; but finally, the two gave up. With 30 km to go, Nicki Sørensen and Matti Breschel (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) attacked, blowing the front group apart, and then Sørensen continued alone. Cult Energy took to the front of the peloton, and caught the remains of the front group with 12 km to go; Nicki Sørensen was some 25 seconds ahead.

On the last lap, that advantage became smaller and smaller, and three riders bridged up, but at 4 km from the finish the peloton had caught them. There were a few last-minute attacks, but a group of 54 sprinted for the win, and Michael Mørkøv snatched victory with a great burst of speed ahead of Morten Øllegaard (Blue Water Cycling) and Casper Folsach (Team Tre-For).

Result:

1. Michael Mørkøv (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) 4:36:00

2. Morten Øllegaard (Blue Water Cycling)

3. Casper Folsach (Team Tre-For)

4. Matti Breschel (Team Saxo-Tinkoff)

5. Kristian Haugaard Jensen (Leopard-Trek CT)

6. Patrick Clausen (Cult Energy)

7. Alex Rasmussen (Garmin-Sharp)

8. Jesper Odgaard Nielsen (Designa Køkken-Knudsgaard)

9. Marc Hester (Christina Watches-Onfone)

10. Casper Degn (J. Jensen-Ramirent)