Copenhagen Sprint 2026 | Dylan Groenewegen faces a strong Belgian sprint contingent

Alongside the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the Tour de Suisse, there is another WorldTour race on the calendar before the Tour de France gets underway. The Copenhagen Sprint — the clue is in the name — is a race aimed far more at the fast men than those other events, so IDL Procycling takes you through everything you need to know ahead of Sunday.

Copenhagen is a true cycling city, but like many other cycling cities — Utrecht, Amsterdam and plenty of other Dutch places included — it is also very flat. It is no surprise, then, that the new WorldTour race, first introduced in 2025, has quickly become one for the sprinters.

The Danish capital hosted the 2011 World Championships, won by Mark Cavendish, and will host the Worlds again in 2029. The Tour de France also started there in 2022. The only edition of the Copenhagen Sprint held so far was won last year by Belgian rider Jordi Meeus, racing for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe.

2025 Jordi Meeus

The race starts in Roskilde, one of Denmark’s oldest cities. Anyone who remembers the 2022 Tour de France will know that Fabio Jakobsen took his first — and so far only — Tour stage victory there. Roskilde is also home to the festival of the same name.

From there, the peloton heads north-east and passes through Hillerød. The race then continues towards Humlebæk, where the riders reach the northern coast of the island of Zealand.

The bunch then turns back towards Hillerød before moving south again. Along the way, the riders face an intermediate sprint in Ganløse. Earlier, there is also one in Frederiksund, while another follows later in Rødovre, a suburb of Copenhagen.

Before reaching the capital, the peloton heads east and passes Ballerup, which hosted the Track World Championships in 2024.

After the final intermediate sprint, the riders properly enter Copenhagen, where they will complete a local circuit five times. Across just under 11 kilometres, the peloton faces a very twisty course: 17 corners in quick succession can really take their toll and form the main obstacle of the finale. As we often see on circuits like this, bringing back attackers and avoiding crashes is far from straightforward.

Weather
It will not be especially warm in Copenhagen on Sunday. The expected temperature is around 17 degrees Celsius, with a chance of rain as well. The wind is not expected to be particularly strong.

Times (Sunday, June 14)
Start: 10:45 AM local time
Finish: approximately 4:04 PM local time

The Copenhagen Sprint may still be a relatively new race, but it has already gained some status among the sprinters. Both the top fast men we saw in the Giro d’Italia and the riders we are likely to see at the Tour de France have chosen to travel to Denmark.

That means Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Premier Tech and Tim Merlier of Soudal Quick-Step are both set to line up. On paper, the two Belgians should have a serious chance of taking stage wins in the upcoming Tour de France as well.

Defending champion Jordi Meeus of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe is also present, along with several Giro names: Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek, Tobias Lund Andresen of Decathlon CMA CGM and Dylan Groenewegen of Unibet Rose Rockets.

Arnaud De Lie of Lotto-Intermarché, Juan Sebastian Molano of UAE Emirates-XRG, Pascal Ackermann of Jayco AlUla, Noah Hobbs of EF Education-EasyPost, Sam Welsford of Netcompany INEOS, Søren Wærenskjold of Uno-X, Emilien Jeannière of TotalEnergies, Milan Fretin of Cofidis, Paul Penhoët of Groupama-FDJ and Matteo Malucelli of XDS-Astana also belong among the fast men in Copenhagen.

Should the race be opened up by attacks, the moves are most likely to come from riders such as Ben Turner of Netcompany INEOS, Michael Valgren of EF Education-EasyPost and Axel Zingle of Visma | Lease a Bike in the Danish capital.

Top favorites: Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step)
Outsiders: Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Emirates-XRG), and Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets)
Long shots: Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché), Soren Waerenskjold (Uno-X), Emillien Jeanniere (TotalEnergies), Noah Hobbs (EF Education-EasyPost), Milan Fretin (Cofidis), Pascal Ackermann (Jayco AlUla), Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ), and Matteo Malucelli (XDS-Astana)

The Copenhagen Sprint can be watched in full on Sunday via HBO Max, which will broadcast the race from 10:35 AM local time.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]