Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) shut down the early dash by Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) and gained stage 2 of the Tour of Norway in Egersund.
Pavel Bittner (Group dsm-firmenich PostNL) completed second, as he additionally got here round Kristoff within the remaining metres. The Uno-X Mobility rider held on to 3rd from a fast-charging Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), who was fourth.
For Meuss, it was his first victory since successful the ultimate stage of final 12 months’s Tour de France on the Champs Élysées. He took the general lead within the four-day stage race.
“Profitable is all the time good. It was a reasonably hectic finale, not simply within the peloton, but in addition on account of sturdy crosswinds from the appropriate,” Meeus stated.
“Regardless of the various place battles, I stayed calm and concentrated. The timing for the dash was excellent. I’m very completely happy to have fun my first victory of the season.”
The favourites closed down a breakaway of three riders with below 3km to race, two of these riders – Brendan Rhim (Venture Echelon Racing) and Johan Ravnøy (Group Coop-Repsol) – having been a part of an unique lead group from the opening 25km of the 173.1km stage.
Uno-X Mobility pushed the tempo on the entrance of the race heading the one-kilometre kite, Fredrik Dversnes main out Kristoff, who was in search of his eleventh victory on the Tour of Norway. Behind that duo Per Strand Hagenes took up the controls for Visma-Lease a Bike to guide Van Aert towards the entrance.
However it was Meeus who took his personal line up the appropriate facet of the straightaway and jumped out of the saddle to speed up to the entrance, then seated himself for the celebration on the line a full bike size forward of the pursuers.
Rhim and Ravnøy had pushed away with Elrik Vang Aas (Norway), the KOM chief, and Matúš Štoček (ATT Investments) throughout the opening 25km, after the beginning in Sola on the indoor velodrome. They stayed collectively till Štoček was the primary to drop on the strategy to the one categorised climb of the day, class 2 Dalane Energi-Bakken (6.4km at 3.1%), with 60km to go.
In a exceptional assault, Van Aert bridged to the leaders and changed Štoček with the combat for KOM factors, Vang Aas getting the highest factors to say within the mountain classification lead. Van Aert then dropped again to the peloton.
With 10km to go, the Rhim and Ravnøy duo from the unique break have been joined by Walter Calzoni (Q36.5 Professional Biking) on the entrance. Visma-Lease a Bike and Alpecin-Deceuninck led the chase behind, the trio in sight simply 14 seconds forward with the street flattening out to the end.
The stage was set for a bunch dash as soon as the leaders have been absorbed again into the peloton with 2.9km remaining.
Outcomes
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