August Jensen makes northern Norway proud
August 12 th 2017 - 19:22
Eight in the lead under Eisel's guidance
Kenny De Ketele (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Håkon Aalrust (Coop) and Herman Dahl (Sparebanken Sør) formed the first breakaway of the five, only 5km after the flag off in the spectacular Lyngen Alps. They lasted at the front for 20km but there were too many ambitious riders in the peloton for the trio to stay away. Moreover, Austrian veteran Bernhard Eisel (Dimension Data) was determined to defend his “lakstrøyen” – the salmon jersey worn by the King of the Mountains. After regrouping, Eisel firstly took Truls Korsaeth (Astana), Ole Andre Austevoll (Coop) and Sébastien Delfosse (WB-Veranclassic) with him. They were rejoined by Hugo Hofstetter (Cofidis), Adrien Petit (Direct Energie), Boris Vallée (Fortuneo-Oscaro) and Daniel Diaz (Delko Marseille-Provence KTM). The peloton kept them under pressure with a two-minute gap after 50km of racing. The fight was on between Eisel and Diaz for the climbing competition. Both riders were part of the breakaway on day 1 as well. Diaz was first at the Vassåsen summit (km 81) and Eisel took his revenge at Sæterlihaugen summit (km 105).
All together at the foot of the last climb
The leading group got a maximum time gap of four minutes with 80km to go. 50km before the end, as the peloton mostly led by Floris Gerts for BMC was cruising with a deficit of two minutes, Eisel gave up and waited for the pack. A dispute between Hofstetter and Korsaeth on the occasion of the second intermediate sprint with 29km to go led to splits in the seven-man front group and disorganized attacks while the peloton was just one minute behind. Austevoll, Vallée, Hofstetter and Delfosse forged on. A runner up on stage 2, Hofstetter was determined to stay away from the peloton. But the leading quartet eventually surrendered with 5km to go, right at the bottom of the final climb to Finnvikdalen. Andreï Grivko (Astana) put the hammer down with 3km to go and made a gap for himself.
Photo-finish to declare Jensen the winner over Teuns
Grivko got reeled in with 1.2km to go. Ben O'Connor (Dimension Data) tried his luck but Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team) didn't let anyone go. While Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) was courageously holding on at the back of the first group, the race leader wanted to increase his lead throughout the time bonuses as well as getting a seventh victory in three weeks time. But August Jensen (Coop) sprinted on his side and it was a very tight finish. The photo-finish was needed to determine the winner between Jensen and Teuns. Second to the Belgian on stage 1 in Narvik, the Bodø native claimed the first Hors-Category victory of his career and moved up to second overall with a deficit of only three seconds. Whether he manages to win the Arctic Race of Norway or not, he's already the first ever cycling hero of northern Norway.