IN- DEPTH: DANISH DELIGHT
Riders from Denmark won Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Dauphiné and the Worlds in 2019. Danish journalist Brian Nygaard explains where the success is coming from, and why it’s going to continue
Procycling analyses the success of Danish cyclists, who took the 2019 Worlds, Liège and Dauphiné
When Denmark’s Mads Pedersen won the rainbow jersey in Yorkshire, it might have come as a surprise to many that he was able to outsprint versatile Italian strongman Matteo Trentin to finish the job and become the new men’s elite road world champion. To others, it was the perfect culmination of his short career so far. But maybe equally as much, Pedersen’s win was testimony to just how far Danish cycling has grown itself into a new golden era.
Danish riders have always been a fixture in the peloton, but in the last few years the level and impact of Danish riders in the sport have
taken significant steps forward, in all categories and age groups. From world-class track racing to the highest level of road cycling, there is an impetus of growth and blossoming of talent with origins in this cold, pancake-flat corner of northern Europe. Denmark passed Great Britain in the UCI’s Nation’s ranking and is closing in on Australia, in ninth. Similarly, on the women’s side, Denmark ended this season as the seventh ranked nation in the world, thanks to riders such as Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Amalie Dideriksen, the latter who won Denmark its first world title in the women’s road race in Doha in 2016.
Pedersen’s path to Worlds glory was not straightforward. He wasn’t one of the clear favourites and neither was he one of the obvious picks of a very strong and motivated Danish team. Michael Valgren and Jakob Fuglsang were the main men, and Pedersen was a mere part of the puzzle in national coach Anders Lund’s masterplan. Pedersen basically had one chance to place himself in the final, mostly to stir up the race and be in with a shout for a medal if everything turned out right. It did. In a big way. Some titles are won this way: a game of circumstances when the music of chance plays the right tune. For Pedersen that day has come early in his career, even if his 2019 as a whole had not been very memorable before that Sunday.
Those who know him well, who have seen beyond the genuine few glimpses of phenomenal efforts he has produced so far, probably knew he had it in him. He’d stormed to second place in the 2018 Tour of Flanders at 22 and was the silver medallist in the road race at the 2013 Junior Worlds in Florence, just beaten by the now fully-fledged phenomenon Mathieu van der Poel. But it’s still a long way from those performances to actually winning the rainbow jersey.
Pedersen is generally considered to be a monster, engine-wise. Built to endure long, hard races, preferably in the kind of weather that hit Harrogate for the last race
of the championships. Sh*t weather. Danish weather. It’s no coincidence that those conditions suit him better than most others. He still lives and trains in Denmark, not more than a short ride from where he was born on the island of Zealand. It’s a middle-of-nowhere sort of a place. A very quiet area with not much happening, which is just how he likes it. Less than a decade ago, it would have been inconceivable for a world-class rider to live and train more or less permanently in Denmark. It wouldn’t be considered proper pro behaviour. The weather and the flat roads would be traded in for warmer and more enticing destinations, such as Tuscany or Catalunya. When you turned pro you left Denmark and probably didn’t come back before retiring.
But Pedersen is part of a small, successful group of Danes who have been swimming against that tide. Kasper Asgreen, Michael Mørkøv and Chris Juul Jensen all live and train in Denmark, and you couldn’t really question these riders’ ability when it comes to delivering at WorldTour level. Professionalism comes in many shapes and forms and Pedersen showed everyone when the weather turned Danish in Britain for one of the most important days of the year, he felt right at home.
JAKOB’ S LADDER
It was a sensational win Pedersen took in Harrogate, but you could rightfully argue that another Dane had an even more successful year. At the complete opposite end of his career compared to Pedersen, and with a very international approach to everything he has done since he turned pro, Fuglsang has been one of the best riders of 2019. The 11 years that separate him and the new, young world champion more than indicate that the past, present and future of Danish cycling are all doing very well, thank you.
Fuglsang had a phenomenal year, his best ever, capped with his highest season tally of five wins that included a debut monument victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Even though a crash ultimately hindered his ambitions for a major overall result in the Tour de France in July, he delivered one of the most consistently impressive seasons by any rider.
Fuglsang is a late bloomer in many ways.
At 34, most riders’ significant victories are behind them and they are often on their way to inevitable physical decline as an athlete. But Fuglsang’s career has followed a path that very few would have been able to predict. Maybe not even himself.
Fuglsang has always been good, really good, but more thereabouts than actually there in terms of producing that one big, careerdefining result. Classy on the bike, skilful on most terrains, powering out a decent time trial and climbing with some of the best. All these things make up a highly desired rider for most teams. Yet still, there has been an air of something unresolved about his immense and versatile talent. Probably all the way up until the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. Something changed after that race. Those close to him would know that he even considered skipping the Games. But he went on to take home the silver medal, after Greg Van Avermaet was unbeatable on the line at Copacabana, and he successfully turned a substantial page in his self-understanding and it probably made him think differently about his ability to win races and be involved in hard finales in one-day races. That was certainly a major piece of the puzzle that had been missing, but Rio changed Fuglsang. The fine-tuning of his race instinct and a boost of self-confidence
were a big part of his exceptional 2019 season. Fuglsang became a much better rider judging by all parameters.
COMING OF AGE
In Denmark, the Tour is potentially too influential when people decide on who’s made it as a cyclist and who hasn’t. This has been an unfair burden on Fuglsang’s status among the general public. Danes like to pick things apart and find shortcomings instead of standing back to enjoy the big picture.
It’s probably the flip side of the perfectionism and attention to detail the country is famous for in other walks of life.
This year’s Tour ended for Fuglsang on stage 15, before he was able to show properly that he had what it took to produce a top-five finish, or even get within striking distance of the podium. But because of how he rode before and after those tough three weeks in July, there was no denying that even for the most ‘glass half empty’ type of Danish fan, Fuglsang was one of best riders of the year. He won Ruta del Sol in February, then followed it with second at Strade Bianche, third at Tirreno-Adriatico and fourth at the Itzulia Basque Country. He was the strongest rider overall in the Ardennes - he preceded his Liège win with third in Amstel Gold Race and second in Flèche Wallonne. It wasn’t cunning tactics that won him Liège; he dropped everyone on the decisive Roche-aux-Faucons climb before bombing down the last descent into the old run-down mining city on the new, redesigned parcours. He won because he was the strongest rider on the day and had been for most part of the spring.
He then went on to win the first race after his break. No small feat, as this was the Critérium du Dauphiné. And after his frustrating Tour exit, he won a big mountain stage in the Vuelta a España and was a step away from the podium in Il Lombardia. He finished the year third in the UCI’s World Ranking and was impressively consistent all season in his GC results and in oneday race results, finishing in the top 10 in 12 of the 18 races he started.
Whether Fuglsang’s future goals involve having another go at the elusive Tour dream might not be obvious, with the Tokyo Olympics road race next summer potentially a bigger and more obvious goal for him to target.
Cyclists make their living by understanding their physical boundaries from the inside to the extreme. Perhaps Fuglsang’s greatest achievement is his patience and the realisation that there was still much ahead of him that he might be able to reach for. Something beyond statistics and his perpetual casting as someone who hadn’t quite made the results he should have, given his talent.
Both Pedersen and Fuglsang have added visibly to the general passion about cycling in a country where it takes quite a bit for the general public to tip their hat in awe. But there is a lot more to the Danish impact in the WorldTour peloton than those two. In fact, you could quite easily set up a roster for most types of races with an allstar Danish line-up as the core of a team. With the likes of Valgren for the classics, Cort for stages, Mørkøv for lead-out, Fuglsang for hillier
races and Asgreen and Juul Jensen for almost any kind of terrain, there are enough Danes to pick from and the variety of skills across the board for the best Danish pros is quite astonishing. And you don’t have to look very deeply into the junior and U23 categories to see that there is a wealth of riders coming up to fly the Danish flag at the highest level in the coming years. Denmark is currently ranked the fourth best nation for U23s and sits seventh in the juniors’ Nations Cup.
BRIGHT FUTURE
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing with the image and integrity of cycling in the past decades, but somewhat regardless of this, the new generations of Danish pros have found inspiration from the accomplished riders that have made their mark before them.
Initially, the fall and rise of Danish cycling mirrors that of most other countries in the wake of the angstridden memories of a not-toodistant doping past. But unlike its neighbour Germany around a decade ago, Denmark has been able to uphold a level of critical media reflection that didn’t drown the sport in collective worry at the same time. That has helped the sport to a more balanced presence in the public domain.
There is a lot to look forward to from the perspective of Danish cycling and this isn’t restricted to the next chapters of Pedersen and Fuglsang’s careers. The track programme leading up to the Olympics looks like it has been timed to peak perfectly for some medal-winning performances and with the Tour grand départ in Copenhagen in 2021, there is more value being added to Denmark’s image as one of the most bikefriendly countries in the world.
This effectively ties the new golden era of Danish cycling to a more general cultural movement of healthy and sustainable infrastructure and the sheer joy of travelling everywhere on your bike. It is most certainly onwards and upwards with the Danes. Now more than ever.
Both Pedersen and Fuglsang Olevel Voluptiishave added alit visibly to the general passion about cycling in a country where it takes quite a bit for the general public to tip their hat in awe
Of course, Richard Carapaz won the 2019 Giro because he rode the 3,546km of the race faster than anybody else. He earned fully the maglia rosa - he won two stages, and never faltered in the mountains. The same is true of Geraint Thomas in the 2018 Tour, for example - it’s a good model for a grand tour-winning ride.
But a grand tour GC is a complicated thing, and two riders can look back at the 2019 Giro and consider it a missed opportunity. Before halfway, the race looked like it might become a battle between Primož Roglic and Vincenzo Nibali. Roglic had come into the race hot, trounced everybody in the opening TT, rode well in the first week then won the mid-race TT. At this point, of the favourites, Roglic was highest. Nibali was already 1:44 in arrears. If anybody noticed Carapaz in 20th place, 3:16 behind Roglic, it was only to research which riders were out of the hunt.
Carapaz attacked towards the end of stage 13 in Cerosole Reale, and Nibali and Roglic looked less at him than each other. By the finish he’d gained a stealthy 79 seconds. The next day was worse - Carapaz attacked further out, and Roglic and Nibali almost ground to a halt, so reluctant was each to contribute to the other’s cause. You have to choose your enemies carefully in a grand tour - Nibali and Roglic were so busy fighting each other, they didn’t notice they’d been fighting the wrong rider until it was too late. Carapaz picked up another 1:54 to make a total of 3:13 in two days and was into the pink jersey.
By the time Nibali realised that Roglic was faltering and that Carapaz was his biggest rival, it was too late. The Ecuadorian was imperious from then on, giving Nibali a long week to consider the minute’s deficit he had on the pink jersey. He’d fought Roglic, and he’d won that battle. But he lost the war.