Hushovd wins inaugural Arctic Race of Norway

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Race ambassador and race favorite Thor Hushovd (BMC) was true to his word as he won the event of his dreams in the far north of Norway. His successful final sprint ahead of Belkin’s Paul Martens in Harstad gave him the time bonus he needed in order to pass Kenny van Hummel in the overall classification.

It was not just another victory but an absolute triumph in front of a delighted home crowd for the “God of Thunder."

“Before coming to the Arctic Race of Norway, I said I wanted to win a stage and the overall, so I feel that it is mission accomplished now. It’s massive but it’s been hard. I was encouraged so much by the public that I couldn’t let them down. I’m proud of what I’ve done but I’m even prouder of what my country has done for cycling this week. For Norwegians, this is the small Tour de France and they wanted it to look the same with the same enthusiasm. I don’t know if I’ll be the race ambassador forever but for sure, the race has a great future.”

Not often does a bike race offer a piece of land as a reward to the rider who wins an intermediate sprint but it happened in Kongsvik, where the mayor added the special reward to the normal price money and time bonus.

The fastest man on the line at km 77, Stijn Neirynck of Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, became a landlord in the county of Nordland in the north of Norway.

“I was very motivated for winning it”, the Flemish rider told Cyclingnews. “But I think I’ll have to sell the land. It’s a bit too far from Belgium for moving and live here!”

Neirynck was part of a six-man front group formed only three kilometers before Kongsvik. His breakaway companions were Canadian national champion Zachary Bell (Champion System), Edwig Cammaerts (Cofidis), who was already noted on the offensive with five kilometers to go the day before, Filip Eidsheim (Øster Hus-Ridley), Gilles Devilliers (Crelan-Euphony) and Steven Caethoven (Accent Jobs-Wanty). But the latter was soon dropped off and brought back by the pack.

Even though Lars-Petter Nordhaug (Belkin) was already sure of being the King of the Mountains of the Arctic Race of Norway, he showed once again that he was the best climber by winning the last prime of the classification he has led since day 1. After his acceleration, it was all together with 25km to go. Attacks kept coming with the likes of Baptiste Planckaert (Crelan-Euphony), Reidar Borgersen (Joker-Merida), Jetse Bol (Belkin) and Zico Waeytens (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) but it went down to a bunch sprint for the last intermediate sprint with two laps to. Hushovd was beaten on the line by Tony Hurel (Europcar). It meant the Norwegian was still one second behind Kenny van Hummel on GC.

“Normally, this finale was too hilly for me but I wanted to defend the leader’s jersey”, van Hummel said. “My team did a good job. I was not afraid of the last three guys in the escape in the last lap [Sondre Holst Enger (Team Plussbank), Tobias Ludvigsson (Argos-Shimano) and Jan Ghyselinck of Cofidis] but it was important that my team could keep at the front as long as possible. I’ve done my best but Hushovd was too strong.”

The Norwegian champion passed Martens on the line. “Well, that was deep”, said Hushovd about the violent effort he was forced to produce.

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