Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) claimed a thrilling win in the first-ever Copenhagen Sprint WorldTour race on Sunday, powering to victory in a chaotic finale that unfolded on the streets of the Danish capital. The Belgian outpaced Alexis Renard (Cofidis) and Emilien Jeannière (Team TotalEnergies) in a messy sprint to the line.
Meeus’s win capped off a whirlwind weekend. After claiming stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse on Friday, the 25-year-old withdrew from the race the next day and flew to Denmark to step in for an injury-depleted squad. Less than 24 hours later, he was celebrating another impressive win.
The race’s final kilometers were marred by a major crash involving Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike), which shattered the peloton with under 10km to go and disrupted many teams’ sprint plans. Meeus, who had been part of the chasing group along with Renard and Samuel Watson (Groupama-FDJ), timed his move perfectly as the front of the race came back together.
Despite strong showings from sprinters like Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), and Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), none could match Meeus’s speed in the final meters. Groenewegen launched his sprint with 300 meters to go but faded and settled for seventh as Meeus surged past.
“After six hard stages in Switzerland, I was feeling the fatigue, but I still had something left,” Meeus said post-race. “It was a crazy finish, and I wasn’t in the ideal position in the last corner. But I knew there was a headwind, and I gambled on some space opening up. It worked out perfectly.”
The 235.7km one-day race, new to the WorldTour calendar, began in Roskilde and finished with several technical laps through Copenhagen’s city center, favoring sprinters but demanding tactical awareness.
The day’s early break featured five riders: Jensen Plowright (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Joshua Gudnitz (Team ColoQuick), George Jackson (Burgos-BH), Victor Vercouillie (Team Flanders-Baloise), and Mads Andersen (AIRTOX-Carl Ras). Their lead peaked at around four minutes before being gradually reeled in by the peloton.
As the race hit the city circuits, the front group reshuffled. By the time three laps remained, the breakaway was whittled down to four riders – Plowright, Andersen, Casper Pedersen (Soudal-QuickStep), and Cedric Beullens (Lotto Dstny) – holding a tenuous 30-second gap.
With Visma-Lease a Bike driving the pace behind, the gap evaporated. The decisive crash at the 9km mark then split the pack and scrambled team strategies, setting the stage for a disorganized but explosive sprint finish.
In the end, it was Meeus who navigated the chaos best, securing his second victory in just three days and marking a standout performance in the debut edition of Copenhagen’s WorldTour sprint showcase.
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