Tinkoff-Saxo’s Chris Anker Sørensen was crowned Danish Road Race Champion on Sunday afternoon after securing the win in a two-man group. Chris Anker, who will now race in red and white for the next year, says that he is very touched by taking the win after, what he describes, as a difficult period.
 
Crossing the line in Rønde, Denmark after 206 hilly kilometers, Chris Anker comments that he is surprised and delighted to win his first national championship.
 
“It’s amazing, I’m very, very happy. I didn’t believe that this would ever happen so I’m very touched by the fact that it did. This national championship comes after one and a half year, where things have been difficult for me with a couple of costly crashes. It has been an uphill battle and I nearly lost hope that things would turn around. But I guess that today stands testimony to the fact that you should never give up and keep working hard”, says Chris Anker Sørensen, who thanks his three teammates from Tinkoff-Saxo:
 
“We were only four guys from Tinkoff-Saxo and we rode together to ensure that one of us could win. It was very difficult and it was a hard-fought win but I have to thank my teammates that rode fantastically well and I also have to thank our sports director Lars Michaelsen, who was just behind me in the team car, when I broke clear with Martin Mortensen on the final five kilometers. Without him I would probably have spent much of my energy pulling at the front, but he advised me to sit on Mortensen’s wheel and keep cool as Valgren was in the group behind”.
 
“I arrived at the final uphill sprint in Rønde with Mortensen, I’ve known him for many years and I know that he’s quick but somehow I had it in me to beat him on the very last meters. It’s a big confidence booster to take this championship and I am very excited about the prospect of racing and riding in the Danish champions jersey for the next year”, adds Chris Anker Sørensen.
 
The Danish National Road Championship consisted of 15 laps of 13.9km for a total distance of 206km in hilly terrain. Lars Michaelsen, Tinkoff-Saxo sports director, gives his assessment of how the race was won:
 
“It was quite a demanding circuit with more than 2,500 meters of altitude gain. Unfortunately, Jesper Hansen and Matti Breschel didn't take part due to injuries so we were down to only four riders. As a result, we had to downplay a bit our status as one of the 'big' teams. This resulted in a morning break that we had expected but with nobody taking responsibility because the big Danish Continental teams were all represented and we were not”, explains Lars Michaelsen.

“At one point we were more than 9 minutes behind the front group. After 55km, Chris Anker offered himself as a working horse and for 40km he pulled very hard and the gap went down to 2 minutes. From that point, we actually saw we had the possibility to turn the situation around and this is what took place. The hard racing also resulted in a diminished peloton. It could have been Chris Anker, as it could have been Valgren, Mørkøv or Chris Juul-Jensen”, says Michaelsen about the final result and adds:
 
“It was Chris Anker at the end and everybody that has even a little knowledge of his sprint abilities would think he was racing for second place going into the final kilometers with Martin Mortensen, a strong rider from Cult Energy. I gave him some directions with 5km to go and told him not to pull. I told him to stay on Mortensen’s wheel until 50 meters to go and Chris Anker pulled it off! I'm sure he's the happiest person in Denmark tonight”, says the delighted sports director before concluding:
 
“I'd like to stress again that this championship was won thanks to the strong team work! It could have been any of our four riders and it was evident at the start that they would fight hard for each other. Obviously, everybody would love to be the national champion but throughout the race they worked as a team and that was fundamental for the victory. They put the team effort above their personal ambitions".