Kristoff wins opening stage in Norway

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Alexander "Kalashnikov" Kristoff claimed the opening stage of the Tour of Norway with a virtual spray of bullets to claim his fourth victory of the 2014 season. He won an uphill sprint in Larvik ahead of his up and coming compatriot Sondre Holst Enger of Sparenbanken Sør and Belgium's Tom Van Aesbroeck of Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, the Norwegian winner of Milan-San Remo showing how much he has stepped up this year.

"It's not much different from my win on stage 1 here last year," Kristoff told Cyclingnews after the finish. "I always felt some pressure to win in Norway. The difference now after Milan-San Remo is that I'm more expected internationally as a potential winner when it comes down to a sprint like this."

On the eve of the inaugural stage, Kristoff took his teammates to reconnoiter the last kilometer that included a hill and a flat section prior to 300 metres of a difficult false flat finish. The characteristics of the finale boosted his confidence and ambitions, so it was no surprise to see Katusha pulling the bunch behind the seven breakaway riders who had taken off after no more than four kilometers.

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Accompanied by Adrian Kurek (CCC Polsat), Davide Frattini (Unitedhealthcare), Oysten Stake Laengen (Motiv3), Adrian Gjølberg (FixIT.no), Krister Hagen (Øster Hus-Ridley) and later Eliot Lietaer (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Tour de l'Avenir winner Ruben Fernández (Caja Rural-RGA) won the two intermediate sprints of the day while Gjølberg took the first King of the Mountain jersey with only one categorized climb on the menu of the day. Their maximum advantage was 4:25 at km 42.5.

As the three Pro Teams in contention, Katusha, Belkin and Tinkoff-Saxo, combined forces at the head of the peloton, the last four breakaway riders got caught with 6km to go. Belkin won the battle for positioning at the bottom of the final climb. "It was very slippery on the wet downhill," Kristoff described. "I got scared and I lost a few positions. But the bottom of the climb, I was not that far behind. Lars-Petter [Nordhaug] was right to attack strongly but my teammate [Aleksandr Kuchinsky] closed the gap. He was very strong, too. As Marco Haller led me out and I still had some power left, I thought I was going to win but I looked back and I saw Sondre Holst Enger very close behind me. That pushed me to give a bit more."

Enger showed some anger after being defeated, but he was true to his words on the start line as he expected to being able to beat Kristoff despite just coming out of a beginning of the season affected by illness. The bronze medallist at last year's U23 world championship was on the hunt for his first success of the year. For now, he's back in the lead of the best young rider competition that he won at the Tour of Norway last year as well as finishing third overall behind Edvald Boasson Hagen and Sergio Paulinho.

Boasson Hagen being busy at the Giro d'Italia this year, Kristoff is pipped as a potential overall winner but he played down his ambitions. "My main objective remains the stage wins," he said. "I'm coming out of a period with not much racing (only his successful GP Frankfurt since Paris-Roubaix). This is my first stage race on the way to the Tour de France. I'll try to keep the yellow jersey as long as I can. Last year I lost it in the queen stage in Lillehammer. We'll see on Saturday if I manage to overcome the climbs or not."

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