Here is Jakob Duma’s report of the final stage. Many thanks to Jakob for his outstanding coverage and insights into this year’s Tour of Denmark!

Today’s sixth and final stage of the tour of Denmark started early this afternoon when all the 100 remaining riders went out on the 164 km long stage between Slagelse and Frederiksberg. Right from the gun there was a lot of activity trying to jump away but again today the pack was being totally controlled by the very strong CSC-Tiscali team with race leader Jacob Piil. The first serious attempt of the day came however when the two young Danes Glenn Bak (Danish National Team) who has been very active in this race and Jakob Nielsen of (Team Glud & Marstrand) who both didn’t pose any threat at all in the overall classification attacked at the 55km mark. The peloton controlled as usual by CSC-Tiscali didn’t react at all to the two Danes, who at the halfway point had grown a massive 7’10” lead.

Unfortunately for the two the real action started when Laszlo Bodrogi (Mapei) currently laying in 3rd place accelerated from the bunch getting a good gap and pulling in his usual heavy gears. The big Hungarian extended his lead to about 1’ 10” and the panic was starting to show in the CSC Squad. However team manager Bjarne Riis reorganised his troops with every man at the front with orders to give full pedal, and the next 10 km was a real sprinters’ match between Laszlo Bodrogi (Mapei) and a complete CSC-Tiscali squad and even though the Hungarian is a world class performer against the clock this was a battle he couldn’t win. His lead was getting smaller and smaller as the kilometre’s went by, then eventually the inevitable happened as the Hungarian was absorbed by the bunch and the CSC mission was complete.

But by now the sprinter teams started to smell blood as the two young breakaway companions Glenn Bak (Danish National Team) and Jakob Nielsen (Team Glud & Marstrand) lead had been heavenly minimized as a result of the tempo set by CSC-Tiscali. With 20 kilometres to go the escapers' lead was now just under 2 minutes, and AG2r with last year’s winner on Frederiksberg Allé, Estonian Jaan Kirsipuu, was now the most controlling team in the peloton, being assisted by Team Gerolsteiner who was trying to set up their German sprinter Olaf Pollack who has been a very prolific winner this season. With 10 kilometres remaining the two young Danes had to stretch their weapons and be inhaled by the chasing pack, and had to settle for a 90km breakaway ending without any stage glory. Then another interesting thing happened as Jaan Kirsipuu launched an attack with 6 km remaining trying to copy his breakaway number he succeeded with on stage 5 in the Tour de France. But he also had to give in as Team Gerolsteiner pulled him in setting up the inevitable sprint finish.

As the sprint was opened the winner of this year's second stage Stefan Van Dijck (Lotto) looked in strong position, but heading for the line he was simply overtaken and out-sprinted by Olaf Pollack (Team Gerolsteiner) who snatched his 7th win of the season closely beating fellow German Sven Teutenberg (Phonak), with Stefan Van Dijck (Lotto) settling for 3rd place.

There was no change in the overall classification with race leader Jacob Piil (CSC-Tiscali) winning his home tour for the first time beating Norwegian champion Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Team Fakta) and Laszlo Bodrogi (Mapei), with the climber’s jersey going to Estonian Innar Mandoja (AG2R) and a little revenge for overall runner up Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Team Fakta) who took the sprinter jersey.

Race organiser Jesper Worre has been very satisfied with the way Tour of Denmark has been organised and is already looking forward to the 2003 edition. See you next year.