Alexander Kristoff: "I was the strongest in the last climb"

August 13 ^th 2015 - 18:54

I didn't win the whole summer so it was about time. I'm glad I did here in the Arctic Race. Now I can relax a bit because I have a win. In a five-man team, it's always difficult but today my guys did a great job even if we were one rider down. I was in a perfection position in the last kilometer. I was the strongest in the last climb to finish. I'm happy to pull it off. I'd rather have a stage win in the Tour de France but it's good to be winning again. This is the first step of the preparation for the world championship. It couldn't have been a better start of the Arctic Race of Norway. I was never leading the race last year so it's cool to have this jersey. We'll see how long I can keep it. Tomorrow it should be possible but stage 3 is quite hard for me. I'm pretty sure I'll lose it on stage 3 but you never know. I was expecting to win today. Tomorrow it'll be the sprinters again, so my rivals will be [Bryan] Coquard, MTN [Boasson Hagen], [Sam] Bennett, [Niccolo] Bonifazio, Sondre Holst Enger from IAM. There are many good sprinters here!