Nils Eekhoff initiates the sprint, but Waerenskjold wins stage 2 of the Tour of Denmark; Philipsen finishes fourth

On day one, the Tour of Denmark got off to a flying start. On the island of Bornholm, Lidl-Trek turned the race upside down with Mads Pedersen and Mattias Skjelmose, with the former world champion taking the stage win. Lukas Kubis finished in a strong second place for Unibet Tietema Rockets, putting himself in a good position in the GC.

The second stage was only 110 kilometers long, and for good reason: the entire peloton had to be transported by ferry from Bornholm to the Danish mainland in the morning. The organizers accommodated the riders with a late start and a relatively easy stage.

Seven riders broke away from the start: Boas Lysgaard (LHS), Magnus Machholdt (Give Steel), Mads Andersen, Matias Malmberg (Airtox), Anton Muller (Novo Nordisk), Nielsen (Unibet Tietema Rockets), and Rasmus Wallin Bogh (Uno-X).

They didn't get much of a lead, as Lotto, Alpecin-Deceuninck, and Picnic PosNL kept the gap small for their fast men. Lidl-Trek, led by Pedersen, remained remarkably uninvolved. Towards the finish, the lead of the breakaway group gradually diminished: at the start of the three local laps, the leaders still had a little over half a minute's lead. The first of the three passages over the finish line was only 16 kilometers from the finish.

After one local lap in Gladsaxe, a suburb of Copenhagen, ten seconds had been taken off the lead. With 7.5 kilometers to go, the peloton split in two for a moment, and control was briefly lost, slowing down the pace. Wallin and Malmberg decided to attack together. Chaos ensued in the peloton, resulting in a crash. The Danish duo was caught by the peloton just in time in the final lap, 2.5 kilometers from the finish.

Pedersen then saw his lead-out, Ryan Gibbings, who was celebrating his birthday, literally fall away. Uno X-Mobility and Lotto were the first out of the final corner, followed by Nils Eekhoff with a move from behind. The Dutchman from Picnic PostNL had the ideal lead-out and started his final sprint early. The Dutchman opened up a gap, but ultimately saw the sprinters overtake him. Waerenskjold proved to be the fastest, with Belgian sprinter Steffen de Schuyteneer (Lotto) in second place. Eekhoff finished fourth, just behind Jasper Philipsen.