{"id":136348,"date":"2026-07-28T08:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/136348\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T08:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:23:11","slug":"2026-tour-of-denmark-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/136348\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Tour of Denmark preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone who knows the cycling calendar by heart knows that the Tour of Denmark<\/a> comes up soon after the Tour de France<\/a>. This year, the Scandinavian country is once again hosting a strong field of riders, including the returning Wout van Aert<\/a>. IDL Pro Cycling breaks down what you can expect from the five-day Danish race<\/a>!<\/p>\n

The Tour of Denmark has been held since 1985, so\u2014with a brief hiatus in 1988 and 1995\u2014this year marks the 36th edition. As of 2026, the stage race has 2.Pro status, whereas from 2005 to 2020 it held the highest status in cycling.<\/p>\n

The list of winners of the Danmark Rundt, as it\u2019s known in Denmark, includes quite a few big names. Mads Pedersen was last year\u2019s winner, but he won\u2019t be defending his title this year for Lidl-Trek. Grand Tour winners such as Remco Evenepoel (2021) and, going further back, Ivan Basso (2005) have also claimed victory here. Van Aert triumphed in 2018, and Christophe Laporte<\/a> in 2022.Recent Winners of the Tour of Denmark<\/p>\n

2025 Mads Pedersen
2024 Arnaud De Lie
2023 Mads Pedersen
2022 Christophe Laporte
2021 Remco Evenepoel
2020 Cancelled
2019 Niklas Larsen
2018 Wout van Aert
2017 Mads Pedersen
2016 Michael Valgren<\/p>\n

2026 Tour of Denmark route, stage favorites, and start timeStage 1, Wednesday, July 29: Aalborg \u2013 Aalborg (197.2 km)\"denemarken-1\"\/<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll kick off this Tour of Denmark in Aalborg, where the first stage\u2014nearly 200 kilometers long\u2014awaits us. The profile is a bit misleading, as there aren\u2019t actually that many ups and downs on Day 1. We\u2019ll finish after completing three small local loops, one of which includes a short climb of 700 meters at a 6.1% gradient.<\/p>\n

Favorites
Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike)<\/p>\n

Lukas Kubis (Unibet Rose Rockets)<\/p>\n

Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Premier Tech)<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 1:30 p.m CET
Finish: approx. 5:50 p.m CET<\/p>\n

Stage 2, Thursday, July 30: Glyng\u00f8re \u2013 Skive (182.9 km)\"denemarken-2\"\/<\/p>\n

On day two as well, the profile seems to suggest all sorts of steep climbs, but that\u2019s not the case. The format here is the same as the day before, as we\u2019ll once again finish after completing three laps of a local circuit, which again includes a small climb.<\/p>\n

Favorites<\/p>\n

Tom Crabbe (Flanders-Baloise)<\/p>\n

Giovanni Lonardi (Polti VisitMalta)<\/p>\n

Jensen Plowright (Alpecin-Premier Tech)<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 1:50 p.m CET
Finish: approx. 5:50 p.m CET<\/p>\n

Stage 3, Friday, July 31: Fredericia – Vejle (202.9 km)\"denemarken-3\"\/<\/p>\n

On day three, the course includes significantly more hills than on the first two days. It\u2019s a constant up-and-down ride, especially in the final stretch. Riders aiming for the overall victory will have to make their move on this stage. The final 800 meters are very tight, so a strong finish will be essential!<\/p>\n

Favorites<\/p>\n

Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike)<\/p>\n

Corbin Strong (NSN)<\/p>\n

Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Premier Tech)<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 1:00 p.m CET
Finish: approx. 5:50 p.m CET<\/p>\n

Stage 4, Saturday, August 1: Rudk\u00f8bing – Faaborg (172.6 km)\"denemarken-4\"\/<\/p>\n

On day four, the riders head toward Faaborg, where another tricky final circuit awaits them. The decisive factor there is the N\u00f8rreskov climb, which is 800 meters long with an average gradient of 4.8%. The riders will have to tackle it three times, after which there will be a short descent to the finish.<\/p>\n

Favorites<\/p>\n

Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike)<\/p>\n

Anders Foldager (Jayco AlUla)<\/p>\n

Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike)<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 2:00 p.m CET
Finish: approx. 5:50 p.m CET<\/p>\n

Stage 5, Sunday, August 2: K\u00f8ge – R\u00f8dovre (126 km)\"denemarken-5\"\/<\/p>\n

While the organizers did their best in the early days to include as many hills as possible in the course, that\u2019s much less the case for the final stretch. The finish, in particular, is almost entirely flat, so we\u2019ll most likely see one more sprint for the stage win in R\u00f8dovre.<\/p>\n

Favorites<\/p>\n

Milan Menten (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9)<\/p>\n

Erlend Blikra (Uno-X)<\/p>\n

Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl-Trek)<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 12:45 p.m CET
Finish: approx. 3:30 p.m CET<\/p>\n

Overall classification favourites, 2026 Tour of Denmark <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear: With riders like the returning Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte, Visma | Lease a Bike is the team to beat at the start of this Tour of Denmark. Of course, we can only speculate about the form of these two riders, but given their talents, they\u2019ll naturally be immediate contenders for the overall victory.<\/p>\n

The course of this Tour of Denmark is particularly well-suited for classic riders who also prefer to have a fast finish in their legs. We count Lukas Kubis of Unibet Rose Rockets\u2014which also features Rory Townsend\u2014 Corbin Strong of NSN\u2014which also features Rhiley Sheehan \u2014and Tibor Del Grosso of Alpecin-Premier Tech among that category.<\/p>\n

\"tibor-del-grosso\"\/<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also definitely expecting big things from Brabantse Pijl surprise contender Anders Foldager, who is riding for the Danish team. The Uno-X team will want to make things as difficult as possible for Rasmus Tiller, while the speedy Giovanni Lonardi (Polti VisitMalta) and Milan Menten (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9) should also handle the hills well. The Belgian team also has Toon Aerts in the lineup.<\/p>\n

Lidl-Trek has won here before and has two very dangerous riders in Jakub S\u00f6derqvist and S\u00f8ren Kragh Andersen, so we definitely expect Lidl-Trek to try to dictate the pace of the race.<\/p>\n

IDL Pro Cycling top picks, 2026 Tour of Denmark<\/p>\n

Top Favorite: Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Dark horses: Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike), Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Premier Tech), and Jakub S\u00f6derqvist (Lidl-Trek)
Long shots: Lukas Kubis (Unibet Rose Rockets), Corbin Strong, Rhiley Sheehan (both NSN), Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X), Toon Aerts (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9), and S\u00f8ren Kragh Andersen (Lidl-Trek)<\/p>\n

TV Tour of Denmark 2026If you want to follow the race from Denmark, you can tune in to HBO Max<\/a> every day at 3:45 p.m. Please note: on Sundays, the broadcast starts at 1:30 p.m., as the race begins earlier and therefore ends earlier. TV viewers in Europe are in luck on Thursday and Friday, as Eurosport 1 will also be broadcasting on those days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone who knows the cycling calendar by heart knows that the Tour of Denmark comes up soon after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[18152,2813,27,26,16936,65775,14799],"class_list":["post-136348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denmark","tag-christophe-laporte","tag-cycling","tag-danmark","tag-denmark","tag-previews","tag-tour-of-denmark","tag-wout-van-aert"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116996643855464476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}