Toupalik fends off the peloton
August 18 th 2018 - 19:04 [GMT + 2]
Czech cyclo-cross specialist Adam Toupalik fended off the whole peloton as he managed to stay up front after a long breakaway. The Corendon-Circus team made a one-two with Mathieu Van der Poel sprinting to second place while Sergei Chernetski, third, extended his lead in the overall ranking.
108 riders started stage 3 in Honningsvåg. Just after Matteo Fabbro of Katusha-Alpecin won the King of the Mountains price at the exit of the North Cape tunnel (km 16) ahead of Damiano Caruso (BMC) and Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy), the main breakaway of the day was formed by nine riders: Willie Smit (Katusha-Alpecin), Tom Wirtgen (WB Aqua Protect-Veranclassic), Johan Le Bon (Vital Concept), Connor Swift (Dimension Data), Axel Journiaux (Direct Energie), Adam Toupalik (Corendon-Circus), Robin Carpenter and Adam De Vos (Rally Cycling) and Øyvind Lukkedal (Coop). De Vos who was the highest ranked of them in the GC (at 1’37’’) dropped back to the pack. Lukkedal won the King of the Mountains price at Olderfjordalen (km 97.5). The time difference reached four minutes at half way into the race before the Astana team of race leader Sergei Chernetski set a higher tempo at the front of the peloton to reduce the deficit and stabilize it around three minutes.
Eight men in the lead
Lukkedal also won the intermediate sprint at Kvalsund (km 140). The breakaway was no threat to the lead of Chernetski since Toupalik was the best placed of them, at 4’19’’, so other teams like Wanty-Groupe Gobert took care of the chase to bring the time gap down. On the first passage on the finishing line with 16km to go, the difference was only 55’’. The front group split to leave Le Bon, Toupalik and Carpenter with an advantage of 25’’ over the peloton led by BMC and Astana at bell lap.
Chernetski extends lead
The peloton was rushing to catch the breakaway riders but Toupalik looked behind and valued the advantage he had left after dropping Le Bon and Carpenter off in the uphill finish. He managed to stay away while his team-mate Mathieu Van der Poel was the fastest of the bunch. Chernetski, third, took three seconds bonus to extend his overall lead with one day to go.
Daniel Årnes and Amalie Lutro are the heroes of tomorrow
In the Arctic heroes of tomorrow races, a tradition for u19 promising cyclists since the inception of the event in 2013, Amalie Lutro of Stavanger SK (Region Sør) won the girls competition ahead of Anne Dorthe Ysland from Gaudal SK (Region Midt) and Thale Kielland Bjerk of BOC (Region Sør). Daniel Årnes of Kristiansand (Region Sør) was the winner among the boys ahead of Søren Warenskjold (Ringerike SK) and Vegard Stokke (Glamdal). Region Tevebu was the winning team cumulating the points of both races with Region Sør second and Region Øst third.