Michael Valgren put in a solid performance in the fourth stage individual time trial at the Tour of Denmark to take fourth on the day, just 10 seconds down on the race winner. With his ride, Valgren successfully defends his overall race lead going into tomorrow’s final stage.
“We finished with three guys in the top ten with Valgren, Boaro and Benna and Valgren defended his lead which was the goal so we can be happy,” explained Sport Director Lars Michaelsen after the stage. Valgren did a solid ride, very smooth and led through the second split but in the final section he lost some time. The winner is a specialist so it was a good performance again today.”
The race’s only individual time trial covered a distance of 19.6km over a mainly fast, flat route, proved by the winning average speed of over 50kmh. With Pavel Brutt setting a strong early time for the team to give benchmarks for the others later in the day, the guys set about putting in strong performances across the board.
Daniele Bennati rode another strong time trial after his top 10 finish in the time trial at the Tour of Poland to place 10th on the stage, with teammate Manuele Boaro going one better in ninth. All eyes were then on Valgren to see how he could fare, and how the efforts of yesterday would sit in his legs.
He set a strong time through the first time split and then led at the second by just one second, however the hard efforts of the past days caught up with him in the final kilometres and he eventually came over the line with a time of 23’22”, placing fourth.
Michaelsen continued: “Valgren missed the podium by a tiny amount today, fading and losing a few seconds through the final corners, but this doesn’t matter as the goal was to defend his race lead which he did. Gogl also did a good ride to hold onto fourth overall.
“Valgren now has 12 seconds over second place, and although there are bonus seconds available during the stage normally there should be a break to take these. However, we are ready to give everything and will only relax when it’s all over. There’s still a lot to concentrate on tomorrow.”
Tomorrow’s final stage sees the riders tackle 175km over a rolling parcours that covers ten finishing circuits, but without any major difficulties on this circuit, it could well be another day for a sprint.
Stage Result
1. Mads Wurtz Schmitz (DEN) Virtu Pro Veloconcept 23:12
2. Lars Boom (NED) Astana +00:00:08
3. Martin Toft Madsen (DEN) Team Almeborg-Bornholm +00:00:09
4. Michael Valgren (DEN) Tinkoff +00:00:10
5. Marcin Bialobloki (POL) One Pro Cycling +00:00:12
9. Manuele Boaro (ITA) Tinkoff +00:00:43
10. Daniele Bennati (ITA) Tinkoff +00:00:48
13. Pavel Brutt (RUS) Tinkoff +00:00:53
16. Michael Gogl (AUT) Tinkoff +00:00:59
44. Michael Kolar (SVK) Tinkoff +00:1:55
55. Erik Baška (SVK) Tinkoff +00:02:11
GC After Stage 4
1. Michael Valgren (DEN) Tinkoff 13:07:12
2. Magnus Cort (DEN) Team Postnord Danmark +00:00:12
3. Mads Wurtz Schmitz (DEN) Virtu Pro Veloconcept +00:00:56
4. Michael Gogl (AUT) Tinkoff +00:01:20
5. Christoph Pfingsten (GER) Bora-Argon 18 +00:01:21
10. Manuele Boaro (ITA) Tinkoff +00:01:45
28. Daniele Bennati (ITA) Tinkoff +00:03:44
47. Pavel Brutt (RUS) Tinkoff +00:11:10
75. Erik Baška (SVK) Tinkoff +00:21:14
112. Michael Kolar (SVK) Tinkoff +00:39:31
