Sacha Modolo wins fourth stage as Simon Gerrans takes overall lead in Tour of Denmark 2011
Colnago-CSF Inox team’s Sacha Modolo took his second stage victory after winning the fourth stage of Tour of Denmark 2011 on Saturday, August 6. Simon Gerrans retained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Soro and ended in Frederiksværk. The 24-year-old Italian racing cyclist took the total of 2 hours, 25 minutes and 20 seconds to cover the distance of 111 kilometres.
Sacha Modolo hoping to put an Italian team for World Championships in Copenhagen in September and after a decent effort of his CSF team-mates he confirmed his sprinter’s credentials upward to the finish.
The two cyclists managed to gain a lead including Concordia Insurance-Himmerland team's of Jens Erik Madsen and Christina Watches-Onfone team's Kristian Sobota with 12 kilometres to go.
Both of them got away, as they were joined by three cyclists Martin Mortensen (Leopard Trek), Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and Daniel Fodder (Glud & Marstrand - Consult Consulting).
The two riders Fodder and Sobota lost contact but strong riders Mortensen managed to remain with a breakaway and built a lead after 20 kilometres. The two teams Sky and Colnago-CSF-Inox worked well to defend the lead of Gerrans.
With three kilometres to go, Mortensen tried to make a solo move and stayed away but he failed. In the tough final sprint Modolo managed to increase his pace and cross the finish line ahead of the other cyclists without any difficulty.
Colnago-CSF Inox directeur sportif Roberto Reverberi said, “We worked hard for this win, We worked all the way, chasing the break, including the last one at five kilometres to go. Bennati went really hard in the sprint but Modolo got on his wheel and he
passed him with fifty metres to go.”
In this season, Modolo took second place in Ronde van Drenthe and fifth stage of Tour of Qinghai Lake. He also grabbed fourth place in Milano-Sanremo 2010.
Jure Kocjan (Team Type 1 – Sanofi) was runner-up and Daniele Bennati (Leopard Trek) finished third with the same timing as the Italian.
Lasse Bochmann of Glud & Marstrand - LRO was in good form and tried his best to catch the leading cyclists but failed and grabbed 32nd place with the difference of 9 seconds ahead of Andre Steensen and Alex Dowsett.
Martin Pedersen took the overall mountain classification ahead of Michael Reihs and Bochmann. Martin Mortensen was very happy after receiving a title of most aggressive standing with 12 points.
Gerrans maintain overall classification with timing of 15 hours, 28 minutes and 35 seconds. Matti Breschel was runner-up with 4 seconds and Bennati finished third with 6 seconds behind Australian.
The next time trial stage will start in Helsingor and all the cyclists will cover the distance of 13.2 kilometres.
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