Pressemelding: The longest stage of this edition has also been the fastest. The breakaway and the peloton fought all day long and, at the end, the breakaway won the fight for only 7 seconds! Edoardo Affini takes the win in front of Anders Skaarseth and Sander Armée.
Contrary to the previous days, it took 50 kilometers for the breakaway to take form. It is only after the intermediate sprint in Søndeled, where Tim Wellens took 3 bonus seconds, that the peloton let 7 riders go. The men in front were Tom Scully of EF Education First Pro Cycling, Edoardo Affini of Mitchelton-SCOTT, Sander Armée of Lotto Soudal, Daniel Turek of Israel Cycling Academy, Rasmus Quaade of Riwal Readynez Cycling Team and Anders Skaarseth of Uno-X Norwegian Development Team.
Even if the stage was very long, the peloton and the breakaway kept the pace up all day. The gap decreased slowly but surely during the stage and the men in front only had a one-minute lead with 12 kilometers to go. Ben Swift, as yesterday, decided to attack in the final and Petr Vakoc followed him. They were joined by Sven Erik Bystrøm with 8 kilometers to go. The peloton didn’t want to let them any chance and caught them a few kilometers later.
In front, Sander Armée decided to go solo with 7 kilometers to go. His companions where not keen on giving him a shot and caught him back! The peloton came closer and closer to them but not enough! Edoardo Affini was the strongest of the leading group and crossed the line first, the peloton finished 7 seconds after. With this stage victory he is now in the same time has Edvald Boasson Hagen at the general classification, but the Uno X Yellow jersey stays on the shoulders of the rider from Dimension Data.