Copenhagen Sprint

Copenhagen Sprint is a men's one-day WorldTour bike race held in Denmark each June. The race brings the international peloton to the Danish capital for a fast, technical course that typically rewards sprinters who can handle sharp corners and late accelerations.

The Copenhagen Sprint is a men’s WorldTour one-day race from Roskilde to Copenhagen, first held in June 2025 on a flat route made for sprinters. Jordi Meeus won the first edition and Jasper Philipsen the second, each after a late crash on the city circuit had split the field.

Why Denmark created a WorldTour race for sprinters

The UCI license for the race belongs to the Danish Cycling Union, and it was announced in December 2023 for an initial three years, 2025 to 2027. The union set up a separate event company to run it, with Tobias Hoff as chief executive and Jesper Tikiøb as race director. Denmark had never had a WorldTour race of its own.

Behind the company stands a partnership of the City of Copenhagen, Roskilde Municipality, two government ministries, Sport Event Denmark and Wonderful Copenhagen. For the first three years the City of Copenhagen set aside 45 million Danish kroner, the state 10.5 million, Sport Event Denmark 10 million and Roskilde 6 million, and the company’s brief is to find enough sponsors that later editions are privately funded.

Both cities had hosted the Tour de France three years before the first edition: the 2022 Tour started in Copenhagen, and its second stage left Roskilde for Nyborg. The name, the dates and a first route were presented at Copenhagen City Hall the summer before the first race. The late June dates let sprinters test their form ahead of the Tour.

The route from Roskilde through North Zealand

The 2025 race started at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde and covered 235.7 kilometers. It went north through Jyllinge, crossed Kronprinsesse Mary’s Bridge into Hornsherred and came back over Kronprins Frederik’s Bridge into Frederikssund. From Hillerød and Frederiksborg Castle, a loop that the women’s race does not have took the men down Slotsgade in Fredensborg, with Fredensborg Palace as the backdrop, and past the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art at Humlebæk. The route then turned south through Allerød, Farum, Ganløse and Ballerup and entered Copenhagen from the west along Roskildevej.

In 2026 the start moved to Stændertorvet, the square in front of Roskilde Cathedral, and the distance came down to 228.2 kilometers. The way into the capital changed as well. The first edition passed through Frederiksberg and joined the circuit at Nørrebros Runddel; the second came in by Vigerslev Allé and joined it on H. C. Andersens Boulevard, beside City Hall Square.

Five laps of Copenhagen and the finish on Sølvgade

The race ends with five laps of a city circuit, which measured 10.3 kilometers in 2026. From the finish line the riders pass Grønningen, turn down Store Kongensgade and take the cobbles of Adelgade. After a U-turn on H. C. Andersens Boulevard they follow Nørre Søgade and cross Dronning Louises Bro, the bridge that about 40,000 cyclists use every day. At Nørrebros Runddel, just over 3 kilometers from the line, they turn right onto Jagtvej.

A tight, slow corner at Sankt Hans Torv comes 1.4 kilometers from the finish. From the final corner, onto Fredensgade, the road runs straight for the best part of a kilometer, over Fredens Bro to the line on Sølvgade, in front of the National Gallery of Denmark.

Jordi Meeus and the first edition in 2025

The first race was held on June 22, 2025, the last day of the Tour de Suisse. Meeus had won stage 6 in Switzerland on the Friday. His Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team was short of riders for Denmark, in part because its sprinter Sam Welsford was injured, and the UCI gave Meeus a waiver to leave one WorldTour race and start another. “I had a great weekend,” he told Het Nieuwsblad afterward, as quoted by Cyclingnews.

Ten WorldTour teams started, and Mads Pedersen, who grew up in Tølløse, 30 kilometers from Roskilde, came as the home favorite after four stage wins in the Giro d’Italia. A crash about 10 kilometers from the finish put Olav Kooij out of the race, held up several of Pedersen’s lead-out riders and left around 50 riders in front.

On Sølvgade Dylan Groenewegen started his sprint first, inside the last 300 meters and into a headwind, and faded to seventh. Meeus stayed on the wheels, came out on the right and won in 5 hours 1 minute 15 seconds, ahead of Alexis Renard and Émilien Jeannière. Pedersen finished 40th in the same time.

Philipsen’s 2026 win and a breakaway caught in the last kilometer

For 2026 the Tour de Suisse took new dates, and the UCI moved the Copenhagen Sprint a week earlier, to June 14 for the men. The first weekend had drawn 257,000 spectators by the organizers’ count, and the field grew: all 18 WorldTour teams started, against ten the year before. Welsford was among the sprinters, now with Netcompany Ineos.

Five riders went clear early, four of them Danes, and four were still in front on the circuit. Light rain fell on and off through the day. Near the end of the penultimate lap, with 18 kilometers left, a crash on a tight corner split the peloton and left roughly 30 riders in the first group. Tim Merlier and Groenewegen were behind it. The four escapees still had 10 seconds with 4 kilometers to go and were caught inside the final kilometer.

Philipsen had not raced since Paris-Roubaix in April. He followed Tobias Lund Andresen into the sprint and passed him in the last 150 meters, with Welsford third. His average speed was 47.5 kilometers per hour. Rune Herregodts, one of the four from the break, held on for ninth, and Meeus finished 31st, 20 seconds back.

Danish riders in the Copenhagen Sprint

The UCI has allowed a Danish national team to start both editions, which gives places to riders whose own teams are not in the race. The 2025 race was Michael Mørkøv’s first at WorldTour level as national coach. Mads Andersen rode in the breakaway for that team in both years. Lund Andresen was fifth for Picnic PostNL in 2025 and second for Decathlon CMA CGM in 2026, the best Danish results of the first two editions.

This is a WorldTour one-day race built for sprinters, held in Denmark in June. The finishing circuit runs through central Copenhagen, where 90-degree turns, a U-turn and a stretch of cobbles create a technical challenge that separates pure speed from race craft. It is also a chance to see how teams manage a sprint finale when the plan breaks: in each of the first two editions a late crash on the circuit left a reduced group to sprint for the win.