Bennett wins stage 2 of Arctic Race of Norway

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Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18) produced a fine sprint to claim victory on stage 2 of the Arctic Race of Norway, beating Frederico Zurlo (UnitedHealthcare) and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) to claim the spoils in Setermoen.

It was the Irishman’s fourth victory of the campaign following a brace of wins at the Bayern Rundfahrt and a stage win at the Tour of Qatar in February, and it comes on the back of a Tour de France debut that was cut short in the final week.

Bennett timed his sprint to perfection in the finishing straight, holding his fire as Dan McLay (Bretagne-Séché) and then Zurlo opened their efforts from distance, before picking through the bodies and powering past in the final 100 metres.

“I felt absolutely terrible all day and actually I considered during the stage not to sprint,” Bennett said afterwards. “But the guys convinced me to try and they did an absolutely fantastic lead-out. When I lost the wheel on a fast downhill part before the sprint I was disappointed and but again I didn’t want to let the guys down after such a good lead-out. I kept going and just found enough room to go for it.”

Kristoff was too far back when the sprint began, and although he was able to make up some ground in the final 50 metres, the Norwegian had to settle for third place on the stage, though he had the compensation of retaining his overall lead.

The stage was animated by a six-man break featuring Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Carl Maxat Ayazbayev (Astana), Carl Fredrik Hagen (Sparebanken Sor), Torstein Traeen (Ringeriks – Kraft), Krister Hagen (Team Coop - OsterHus) and Sindre Eid Hermansen (FixIT.no), who built up a maximum lead of three minutes over the peloton.

As expected, the Katusha team of the home favourite and overnight leader Kristoff took the bulk of the responsibility for the chase, aided by IAM Cycling and Bora-Argon 18. The series of categorised climbs around the midpoint of the stage, including the Gratangsfjellet, failed to break up the peloton, and the sprinters’ teams made light work, too, of the series of ripples in the finale.

Bideau could sense the peloton closing in on the escapees in the final half hour of racing, and he slipped clear alone in the finale in a desperate bid to stay away after the rest of the break was pegged back, but he himself was swept up with 16 kilometres remaining. Like Kristoff, he had compensation of sorts for his efforts, winning 500kg of salmon as a combativity prize.

Giant-Alpecin and Bora-Argon 18 were active at the head of the bunch in the closing kilometres, though the Katusha train never quite materialised – the Russian squad paying a price, perhaps, for starting the race with just five riders.

Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka), one of the form men entering the race, was unable to make any impact in the final sprint, settling for 14th place, as the stage honours fell to Bennett.

Bennett in turn moves up to second place overall, just one second behind Kristoff, while Boasson Hagen lies in third, a further five seconds back.

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