Beyond your universe: Kasper Asgreen's Kolding, Denmark
Tour of Flanders winner shows you around his hometown
Kasper Asgreen has lived in Kolding, Denmark, his entire life.
When Kasper first turned pro, he thought about joining his teammates and competitors in sunny Spain or moving to the warmth of the French or Italian rivieras, but he decided to stay in the town he knows and loves best. Kolding is a small seaport city of about 60,000 people nestled at the head of the Kolding Fjord in southern Denmark. It’s a place for hard workers and young families, salt-of-the-earth Danes like Kasper. Kolding is where Kasper’s best friends live, his family lives, and where he will always be most at home.
“When I first turned professional, one of my sports directors told me, ‘Just give it a year and see how you get on. If you still think you need to move, then do it, but you got this far by living here in this environment, and if you got to the professional ranks, it’s probably not so bad,’” Kasper said.
Kolding turned out to be a great place to be a pro, especially for a classics rider. Kasper laid the foundations for his wins at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, E3 SaxoBank Classic, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and stage victories at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia on the roads where he first learned how to ride and race a bike. Northwest of Kolding lies rolling countryside crossed by quiet roads that wind up and down through forests and hilly farmers’ fields.
“It’s an old valley that was created by glaciers during the Ice Age,” Kasper said. “Blocks of ice created rifts in the landscape. Now, it’s full of trees and fields. In the summer, it's nice and green. In the winter, not so much. Riding here gives you the ability to stay on the pedals. You never have any long breaks from descents. That gives you a different sensation. It’s something you also have in the spring classics.”
"In the summer, it's nice and green. In the winter, not so much."
When he was a teenager, Kasper switched from horse riding to cycling and quickly became obsessed with the sport. He spent hours out on the roads around Kolding, honing his pedal stroke and dreaming of racing over Belgian cobbles. Cold wind and rain never bothered him.
“The biggest challenge is the weather over the winter,” Kasper said. “There are short days of daylight when it’s gray and rainy and windy, but if you dress yourself well and just have a good mindset about it, I don’t find it too big of an issue.”
In the evenings, he would go to Cykelnorderne, his local bike shop. That’s where Kasper developed his keen interest in tech, working on bikes late into the night to rock music.
“Cykelnørderne is where I bought my first road bike,” Kasper said. “The owners are now good friends of mine. I spent many evenings down there, wrenching and learning how to fix a bike and build a bike. They helped me out a lot with equipment over the years, fixing things from one day to the other, so I could get out training or get out racing. The shop would close, and we would go out and get pizza or sandwiches and have dinner all together in the shop and then continue servicing bikes for another couple of hours. Sometimes, I would get home at 10 or 11 in the evening. We had a good time listening to heavy metal.”
"The biggest challenge is the weather over the winter."
Those years made Kasper tough. Now, no matter how bad the weather is, he still trains outdoors. In the depths of winter, Kasper took us out for a ride on his home roads to show us where he is preparing for the 2026 classics season. Undaunted by the freezing wind and rain, he wanted to show us his favorite hills.
Kasper’s route
Midway through the ride, we stopped at his favorite café for hot drinks and a sweet treat.
“It’s an old farmers’ shop,” Kasper said. “They used to collect goods from all the local farmers and send them off by train. Nowadays, it is a museum and a café. You can buy a few little delicacies. That’s pretty much it, but it is super cozy, and they have a fantastic selection of cakes and pies and baked goods and so on. It is a good place to stop, and they always have the heat on in the café.”
Soon, it was time to head back out into the cold. Kasper bundled into his ASSOS kit and led us out into the mist. He rode hard into the wind to build his strength.
“It’s going to be worth it once we get to the races,” Kasper said.
Join Kasper Asgreen, beyond your universe, in Kolding, Denmark.