The 22-year-old cycled to the finish line at a time of 15.28,08 – five seconds ahead of second-place Alec Segaert from Belgium and 14 seconds ahead of the Danish superstar Mads Pedersen, who cycles for the same team as Söderqvist.
He is an enormous talent. A young man who only has the future ahead of him. I know how fast he is. It makes me so happy that it makes him even happier that he beat me, says the Danish star, who won four stages in the Giro d'Italia earlier this year.
The stage win was the first Swedish one in the competition since Gustav Larsson won the time trial stage in 2008.
I saw the starting list and could see that there were cyclists of world class, so to be able to deliver such a performance and take a win at this level is really cool, says Söderqvist, who took his third professional win in his career.
The leader of the competition is Mads Pedersen. Two stages remain.
