Team Sky's Lars-Petter Nordhaug won the third stage of the Post Danmark Rundt, putting him in the overall race lead in the process.

Nordhaug kept ahead of Wilco Keldermann (Rabobank) and Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Sharp) to win the stage to Vejle in a sprint finish.

The Norwegian now leads Andre Greipel by three seconds heading into Saturday's time trial.

“It was amazing to get a win for the team," said Nordhaug. "It was really motivating to have Mark (Cavendish) and the guys who won in the Olympics pulling for you. I really wanted to try and win or help Mick and Luke. I wanted to do a good race either way but I got the victory and I’m super happy.

“I won earlier in the season, I had a super spring and then I trained for the Olympics. It’s been a bit up and down since then and I’ve been a bit sick but I’m training for the worlds now and it’s nice to get the victory. It’s good to be back in the game.

“I haven’t done a time trial since the nationals. I’ve had an improvement in my time trialling this year and in the national I did a really good performance. I just need to go as fast as I can and see how it goes.

"But I’m happy with this victory as I wasn’t sure I could get a good result here. I’m sure Mick and Luke can be up there tomorrow and we have a good chance of winning the race.”

Eurosport