Arctic Race of Norway: Giovanni Lonardi steals the show in stage 1 sprint

Giovanni Lonardi won the opening stage bunch sprint at the Arctic Tour of Norway on Thursday, the Polti-Visit Malta edging clear after a messy sprint.

After a scruffy closing kilometre, Lonardi found his way to the front of the race with just a handful of metres remaining, edging Jason Tesson (TotalEnergies) into second place, with Riley Pickrell (Modern Adventure) in third place.

The closing kilometres of the stage were a tense affair, the day’s breakaway made up of Continental Team level riders working brilliantly to stay away. They were only caught inside the final three kilometres, a number of team trying hard to position their sprinters for the final.

The win was Lonardi’s first since winning stage 2 of the Tour of Istanbul in September 2025, and will have come as a relief to the 29-year-old sprinter.

"I'm super happy, I search for it a lot this year and it comes today. I'm very, very happy and also the team did an amazing job today. I have no words, I searched for it a lot and I win today.

"I think that I'm in good shape. In the Tour of Denmark last week I tried to win, but I don't have the best feeling this year to try to do a sprint like this, but we did everything good today and I win.

"Today the plan was to win, tomorrow also is a good stage for me, I think, maybe another sprint and then the next two days we have two good riders to do the GC, so we will see day by day." (edited)

For its 13th edition, the opening stage took on an 181.9km route between Evenes and Myre on the coast, and featured three classified climbs, the last of which came 26km from the line before the race headed to the finish for a single 6.2km lap of the finish town.

With the flag dropped, five riders were soon up the road, Victor Vercouille (Flanders-Baloise) escaping with four home riders, Eirik Van Aas (Drali-Repsol), Henrik Teslo Fjellheim (Lillehammer CK), Ludvik Holstad (Team Ringerike) and Morthem Wang Baksaas (Lucky Sport).

The group were allowed their heads, and by the time they reached the day's first climb, just over 90km from the line, they led by a touch under three minutes.

Behind them, and unsurprisingly, the UNO-X Mobility team took on chasing duties, the NSN squad coming to their aid and the gap dropping below two minutes as the race dipped inside the final 70km.

That gap remained static until the approach to the day's second climb when, with the Polti-Visit Malta team assisting with the chase, it dropped to around 1:20 by the time they crested the top.

With the gap coming down fast, two riders attacked the peloton, Axel Källberg and Teodor De Luca bridging across to join teammate Baksaas. By this time, however, the peloton was only 30 seconds behind, and their efforts seemed fruitless.

However, as the race approached the Myre for the first passage of the fish line, the leaders' advantage began to grow, and the peloton entered the final 15km with a deficit of 35 seconds.

Finally, other teams came to the front of the bunch, and with Baksaas and Fjellheim dropped from the leading group, the gap began to drop. Despite some attacks in the leading group, the breakaway managed to maintain their lead for the intermediate sprint, though the gap was under 10 seconds with 6.2km to go.

The breakaway was eventually caught with 2.9km remaining, NSN, TotalEnergies and Lotto-Intermarché finally closing them down and a bunch sprint was inevitable.

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