17th Post Danmark Rundt (2.HC) – Stage 1 & 2
Francesco Chicchi of Liquigas led the first stage with the victory but it wasn't long before CSC took center stage with young Matti Breschel on stage 2 into Århus on target to dominate their home tour.

by Bart Hazen

The Danish tour runs from August 1 to August 5 with the riders will line-up for the 17th Post Danmark Rundt. We pick up our coverage with two stages run and it’s young CSC rider Matti Breschel who leads the race after winning the second stage. Liquigas sprinter Francesco Chicchi was the fastest in the first stage.

Stage 1 : Thisted - Aalborg, 175km
The first stage in the Post Danmark Rundt was 175 km long in distance between Thisted and Aalborg. The first rider on the attack was Team GLS rider, Kristoffer Nielsen. He had a maximum lead of over 2 minutes but Kris was denied and chased down in short order.

The next riders to attack were Jacob Nielsen (Glud & Marstrand Horsens) and Martin Mortensen (Team Designa Kokken). The Continental teams are showing that they have potential to match the pro tour teams in attacking. The two leaders worked well together got a gap of almost 10 minutes before any organized chase started.

Jacob Nielsen took enough points during the stage to become the first leader in the KOM ranking while Mortensen won the best rider in the young rider classification and he got the prize of the most aggressive rider for the effort.

With less than 20 km to go the sprinter teams chased down the break before entering the local laps. The riders had to do three laps of about 3 kilometer finishing circuit. CSC, Liquigas and T-Mobile pulled hard in the front of the bunch and the stage ended up in a bunch sprint.

Liquigas rider Francesco Chicchi was the fastest in the sprint ahead of Juan José Haedo (CSC) and Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile). Tom Steels and Mathew Hayman. Graeme Brown was declassed again after an irregular sprint in which Alex Rasmussen crashed. He broke his wrist and is out of competition for about four weeks.

Post Danmark Rundt
Stage 1 - Thisted to Aalborg Results
175km - 3.56.09
1 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Liquigas 3.56.09
2 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team CSC
3 Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile
4 Tom Steels (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
5 Mathew Hayman (Aus) Rabobank
6 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen (Den) Team GLS
7 Kenny Van Hummel (Ned) Skil-Shimano
8 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Liquigas
9 Stefano Zanini (Ita) Predictor-Lotto
10 Clemens Frankhauser (Aut) Elk Haus-Simplon
11 Jens-Erik Madsen (Den) Team Designa Køkken
12 Evert Verbist (Bel) Chocolade Jacques
13 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Team GLS
14 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano
15 Casper Jørgensen (Den) Team Odense Energi
16 Jacob Moe Rasmussen (Den) Team GLS
17 Rune Udby (Den) Glud & Marstrand Horsens
18 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Skil-Shimano
19 Michael Vanderaerden (Bel) DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed
20 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Chocolade Jacques

Stage 2: Aars - Århus, 195km
The second stage in the Post Danmark Rundt is 195 km long in distance between Aars and Århus. Francesco Chicchi started the stage in the leaders jersey with little time advantage for his sprint victory in the group dash for the line in Aslborg.

The second stage was animated with a break with: Jaco Moe Rasmussen (Team GLS), Preben van Hecke (Predictor-Lotto), Daniel Foder (Team Designa Kokken), David Deroo (Skil-Shimano) and Michael Berling (Glud & Marstrand Horsens). They attacked after 15 kilometer of racing and gained a maximum, like yesterdays attack of about 10 minutes before an serious chase was uninitiated by the peloton.

With 40 km to go the sprinters teams started to chase and caught the daring young escapees in the closing kilometers of the stage as they approached Arhaus. Jacob Moe Rasmussen took enough climbing points during the stage to unseat Jacob Nielsen as the leader in the climbers competition and ranking.

In the final 11 kilometers of the race a small group attacked with Matti Breschel (CSC), Enrico Gasparotto (Liquigas), Lorenzo Bernucci (T-Mobile), Nicki Sörensen (CSC), Denys Kostyuk (Team Intel Action) and Preben van Hecke (Predictor-Lotto). Preben was also involved in the all day break; but showed he still had the legs to follow the fresher riders.

This meant a very favorable situation for Team CSC at the end with two riders in a group of six and when the others were busy watching out for Sørensen, Breschel made his move and delivered a tremendous sprint right in front of the main peloton, which was hot on the heels of the escapees.

The peloton lit up with the chase but the sextet ahead proved stronger than the sprinters team (without the help of CSC and Tmob who had riders in the group) to get a bunch sprint but without success. Matti Breschel won the sprint of the break ahead of Gasparotto and Bernucci. Sörensen and Kostyuk rounded off the top 5. The bunch sprint was won by Mark Cavendish at 6 seconds.

Nicki Sørensen took a nice fourth place and definitely deserves his share of credit for the yellow jersey, which was the direct result of Breschel's victory. This also goes for sports directors Kim Andersen and Dan Frost. "Kim knows every rock in this area so he guided the riders into position so we had all of them up front in the peloton, when there was about 40 kilometers left, which is when Matti and Nicki made the break. Still all our guys kept on working hard in order for the break to maintain a lead, so it was really great," said Dan Frost and concluded, "It was a well earned victory, because the team did great out there and Matti managed to put the finishing touch to a brilliant day."

Matti Breschel is the new race leader in the yellow jersey with stage win and the time bonus. Enrico Gasparotto is second at 4 seconds and Francesco Chicchi third at 6 seconds. Bernucci and Van Hecke rounded off the top 5 of the general Classification.

Post Danmark Rundt
Stage 2 - Aars to Århus Results
195km - 4.50.13
1 Matti Breschel (Den) Team CSC 4.50.13
2 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Liquigas
3 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita) T-Mobile
4 Nicki Sørensen (Den) Team CSC
5 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Team Intel Action
6 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Predictor - Lotto

7 Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile 0.06
8 Jens-Erik Madsen (Den) Team Designa Køkken
9 Kenny Lisabeth (Bel) Chocolade Jacques
10 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Skil-Shimano
11 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen (Den) Team GLS
12 Krzysztof Miara (Pol) Team Intel Action
13 Evert Verbist (Bel) Chocolade Jacques
14 Robby Meul (Bel) DFL Cyclingnews - Litespeed
15 Nic Ingels (Bel) Predictor - Lotto
16 Michael Reihs (Den) Team Designa Køkken
17 Clemens Frankhauser (Aut) Elk Haus - Simplon
18 Greg Henderson (NZl) T-Mobile
19 Gerben Löwik (Ned) Rabobank
20 Jonas Ljundsblad (Swe) Team Canyon

Post Danmark Rundt
General Classification after Stage 2
1 Matti Breschel (Den) Team CSC 8.46.12
2 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Liquigas 0.04
3 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Liquigas 0.06
4 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita) T-Mobile
5 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Predictor - Lotto 0.07
6 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Team Intel Action 0.10
7 Nicki Sørensen (Den) Team CSC
8 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team CSC
9 Martin Mortensen (Den) Team Designa Køkken
10 David Derod (Fra) Skil-Shimano 0.11
11 Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile 0.12
12 Jacob Moe Rasmussen (Den) Team GLS
13 Jacob Nielsen (Den) Glud & Marstrand Horsens
14 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano 0.14
15 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen (Den) Team GLS 0.16
16 Jens-Erik Madsen (Den) Team Designa Køkken
17 Evert Verbist (Bel) Chocolade Jacques
18 Clemens Frankhauser (Aut) Elk Haus - Simplon
19 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Skil-Shimano
20 Tom Steels (Bel) Predictor - Lotto

Remaining stages
3/8/2007: Stage 3 - Århus – Vejle, 190 km
4/8/2007: Stage 4 - Skælskør – Ringsted, 95 km
4/8/2007: Stage 5 - Næstved ITT,12.4 km
5/8/2007: Stage 6 - Præsto – Frederiksberg, 175 km