Unstoppable Dylan Teuns!
August 10 th 2017 - 20:04
Bernhard Eisel on the move
Following many unsuccessful skirmishes, Austrian veteran Bernhard Eisel (Dimension Data) rode away solo with 120km to go as a way to restore some calm after the storm. Jon Soeveras Breivold (Team FixIT.no), Daniel Diaz (Delko Marseille-Provence KTM) and Øivind Lukkedahl (Team Coop) eventually joined him but the former sprinter took the climbers' prices to become the first King of the Mountains of the 2017 Arctic Race of Norway. Katusha-Alpecin did most of the pace at the head of the peloton with a maximum deficit of 4.35.
Grosu-Grivko-Grellier: the 3G network
A counter attack put an end to the breakaway with 25km to go. Eduard-Michael Grosu (Nippo-Vini Fantini) found himself alone in the lead after that move. It was all together again 13km before the end. Christophe Masson (WB-Veranclassic) and Andreï Grivko (Astana) were next to attack. They passed the finishing with a very small advantage over the peloton before the final loop of 10.5km. Grivko forged on but Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) took over from as a lone attacker in the Skistua hill. He was reined in with 4km to go as Rein Taaramäe (Katusha-Alpecin) had a flat tyre which prevented him from getting back on time to try and win the Arctic Race of Norway for the second time after 2015. Trond Trondsen (Sparebanken Sør) and Anders Skaarseth (Joker-Icopal) were among the very motivated continental riders from in the run in to the finish.
Sixth wins in three weeks for Dylan Teuns
Race favorite Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team) took the opportunity of the short climb within 2km to go to ride away from the sprinters as the size of the main peloton was seriously reduced by toughness of the finale and the wet conditions of racing. He maintained a little lead to claim stage 1 over August Jensen (Team Coop) who is the only pro cyclist from northern Norway. The Bodø-born rider took his best result up to date at the Arctic Race of Norway after having been crowned the King of the Mountains twice previously (in 2014 and 2015). Having bagged five victories in the past three weeks with stages and GC at the Tour de Wallonie and the Tour de Pologne before he made his way to Norway, Teuns will start stage 2 with an advantage of six seconds over Jensen and twelve seconds over Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) who finished seventh in his first race with the blue and white jersey of the European cycling union.