Triumphant homecoming for Mads Pedersen who wins stage 1 of the 2025 Tour of Denmark

Mads Pedersen has made a triumphant return to his homeland and has taken the win on the opening stage of the 2025 Tour of Denmark following an attacking day in the saddle by him and his Lidl-Trek teammates.

Six riders got themselves into the day's early breakaway. Among the notable names on the attack were UAE's Julius Johansen, riding for the Danish national team, Victor Vercouillie of Team Flanders - Baloise and Marius Innhaug Dahl (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Development Team). After things settled into a rhythm after the initial split, with 42km to go, the race was ignited once again by a dangerous counter-move by Lidl-Trek's Soren Kragh Andersen.

Whilst that move was unsuccessful, Lidl-Trek weren't frustrated and moments after Kragh Andersen was caught, none other than Mads Pedersen countered with an attack of his own, with Mattias Skjelmose joining him. Heading into the final 20km, Johansen and Magnus Bak Klaris were the only riders from the original break still clear, with the Pedersen - Skjelmose group around 20 seconds behind, and the main peloton a minute down.

Into the last 10km, Johansen and Bak Klaris had been caught by the counter move. From there, it was about whether or not they could hold off the peloton's chase all the way to the stage win. As the stage win became a more and more likely prospect, the group started to splinter. First to attack was that man Johansen again, but with Skjelmose straight on his wheel, the attack was quickly nullified.

It was then a sprint from the group of 9 that decided the day, and that fight to the line it was then unsurprisingly Mads Pedersen who powered to the victory ahead of Lukas Kubis and Conrad Haugsted with a dominant kick, moving into the race lead as a result of his stage 1 success.