Colin Joyce scores stage win at Tour of Denmark as breakaway scalps the sprint teams
Idahoan racer Joyce sprints from breakaway group to continue week of success for Rally Cycling.
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Colin Joyce (Rally Cycling) won stage 4 of the Tour of Denmark after the day’s break foiled the sprint teams.
The Idahoan racer had made his way into the day’s early escape of eight and sprinted from the back of a small group of breakaway riders to score his first victory since 2018. Sebastian Nielsen (Suri-Carl Ras) and Martin Salmon (DSM) rounded out the podium in Kalundborg.
Joyce’s victory in Demark continues a week of success for Rally Cycling. Kyle Murphy won stage 3 at the Tour of Portugal before Ben King won Wednesday’s stage and clocked into second-place on Thursday’s stage into Portuguese town Bragança.
🇩🇰 @Colin__Joyce WINS stage 4 of #PNDKR21 🔥🚀🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/anh69e9uA6
— Human Powered Health Cycling (@hphcycling) August 13, 2021
The stage had gone down to the wire in the final hour of action. The initial break of eight was holding strong at around one minute ahead of the bunch as the narrow twisty roads impeded the peloton’s progress. Deceuninck-Quick-Step and then Jumbo-Visma both attempted to take control and reel in the escape octet but neither made inroads as they failed to commit to the chase.
With five kilometers to go, the race hung in the balance.
The break was down to six after Joyce’s Rally teammate Nickolas Zukowsky and one other lost the wheels. Sensing the sprint was slipping from the peloton’s grasp, Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) attempted a lone flyer at five kilometers to go and Jumbo-Visma made one final late chase – but it was all too little too late as the remaining six escapees went into the final sprint nursing around 10 seconds of a gap.
Joyce punched out from the back of the group and launched a long muscling sprint.
Once the American had got his gap he didn’t look back, fending off a challenge from Salmon before motoring to the line to take the win and continue Rally’s streak of European success.
Overnight GC leader Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) rolled home in the bunch to retain his 1:33 overall lead ahead of the final stage time trial Saturday.