Wout van Aert marked his return to racing in style on Wednesday, as he won the final sprint on the opening stage of the Tour of Denmark after a hard-fought day around Aalborg.
The Visma–Lease a Bike rider was forced to withdraw from the Tour de France after an elbow injury became infected following a training crash before the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, which prevented him from recovering in time.
A crash messed up the peloton after 75 km, and the race then came to life again in the final 15 km as a six-rider move gained a small advantage. The group included Gaspé, Que.’s Côté, Lukas Kubis, Tomas Kopecky, Christophe Laporte, Tim Torn Teutenberg, and Henrik Pedersen.
That inspired Van Aert to launch a powerful attack up the short but tough tough Mlleparken climb. Soren Kragh Andersen managed to stay on his wheel, which gave Visma two riders in the front group.
Laporte then delivered Van Aert to the line, and the Belgian held off Kubis in a long sprint to claim his first win since returning to competition, and Henrik Pedersen completed the podium.
Four stages remain. Thursday’s second day of racing is from Glyngøre to Skive for a total of 182.9 km. Glyngøre is a small town—just 1,300 residents—but has one famous local: none other than Jonas Vingegaard.