Alexander Kristoff lands first win as Europe’s flag bearer

August 11 ^th 2017 - 17:28

Six riders in the lead

After 20km of racing, Zhandos Bizhigitov (Astana), Erwan Corbel (Fortuneo-Oscaro), Javier Megias Leal (Novo Nordisk), Elias Spikseth (FixIT.no), Dimitri Claeys (Cofidis) and Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) formed the main breakaway of the day. The Dutch duo of BMC Racing Team Floris Gerts and Bram Welten set the pace of the peloton without leaving much room for hope to the escapees. The maximum time gap was 3.20. Corbel claimed the two King of the Mountains sprints of the day, with no chance to take the salmon jersey over from Bernhard Eisel though. Approaching the last hour of racing, the sprinters' teams hadn't taken over from BMC Racing Team at the head of the peloton yet and the time gap went back up to 2.30, which inclined Katusha-Alpecin to ask Reto Hollenstein to up the tempo with 43km to go.

Dylan Teuns takes one second bonus

The fight for time bonuses started on the military camp of Bardufoss that hosted the last 33km of racing. The breakaway was still ahead with one minute lead when Claeys took the first intermediate sprint with 22.5km to go. Claeys, Corbel and Bizhigitov forged on and Claeys rode solo to win the second intermediate sprint with 14.5km to go as well. Right after the regrouping, Astana set a one-man show for their Norwegian rider Truls Korseath who rode at the front on his own from 13 to 7km to go. Dylan Teuns tried to increase his overall lead in the last intermediate sprint located only 5.5km before the end. He gained one second behind Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Michel Kreder (Aqua Blue Sport). It was all on the runway for a bunch sprint finish. Perfectly led out by his Danish team-mate Michael Morkov, Alexander Kristoff took the stage victory he was aiming for to become the first ever winner with the European champion jersey of professional road cyclist. Teuns retained the overall lead with two seconds over Pasqualon and three over Kristoff.