Teuns seals Arctic Race with final stage win

BMC Racing's Dylan Teuns put an exclamation point on his overall victory at the Arctic Race of Norway in Sunday's finale in Tromsø, soloing clear in the closing kilometres to nab his second stage win of the race while wrapping up the GC title.

Loïc Chetout (Cofidis, Solutions Credits) pipped Sven Erik Bystrøm (Katusha-Alpecin) at the finish line for second on the day.

Teuns, who took the GC lead on the first stage of the Arctic Race and never relinquished the jersey, only extended his lead on the overall leaderboard with his stage 4 performance. He closed out the event 29 seconds of runner-up August Jensen (Team Coop), with Aqua Blue Sport's Michel Kreder rounding out the overall podium in third.

"It's like they say sometimes in soccer attack is the best defence so that's what I had to do. I could have waited until the sprint, but then there is a chance that the other guy, beats me in the sprint and then maybe he gets third and bonus seconds," Teuns said. "I was a playing a little bit on the last climb, like I did all day. I was waiting but the guys in front didn't have a big advantage. When I saw them in front of me I thought the climb is almost over so now is the time to go.

"I didn't want to go too early, but I went at the right moment and when I looked behind I saw that I had a gap. I just had to go because on the descent they wouldn't catch me. When I got to one k to go, I looked behind I couldn't see anyone. I went full gas in the final kilometres to keep the jersey safe."

The fourth and final stage of the Arctic Race saw an early break go clear and earn a sizable advantage, with Tony Hurel (Direct Energie), Bernhard Eisel (Dimension Data), Kenny Molly (Fortuneo-Oscaro), Dimitri Claeys (Cofidis), Ludvik Aspelund Holstad (Sparebanken Sør), Pavel Brutt (Gazprom-RusVelo) and Jon Soeveras Breivold (Team FixIT.no) forming the initial move. The seven-man escape worked up to a maximum advantage of just under five minutes before the pack tightened the leash and then ultimately began reeling them back in.

As the peloton closed down on the last remnants of the early break, Sébastien Delfosse (WB-Veranclassic), Leszek Plucinsky (CCC Sprandi), Loïc Chetout (Cofidis), Andreï Grivko (Astana), Bystrøm (Katusha-Alpecin) and Rasmus Tiller (Joker-Icopal) went clear with around 22 kilometres to go. They built a small gap but the peloton drove a high tempo to stay within striking distance.

Bystrøm, Grivko and Chetout broke away from their companions with around 10 kilometres to go, but the real danger came from behind in the peloton, as Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) and then the race leader himself bridged on the final climb. Teuns wasted little time before soloing clear, and no one could catch him on a mostly downhill run to the line.

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