Arctic Race of Norway: Mathieu van der Poel wins opening stage

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A hot favourite for stage 1 – and possibly for the overall classification as well – Mathieu Van der Poel met the expectations as he showed his class to win the uphill sprint at Kirkenes in stage 1 of the sixth Arctic Race of Norway ahead of Russia's Sergei Chernetski and Belgium's Benjamin De Clercq.

"It feels good to win this race," Van der Poel said. "It was a pretty hard day. I was at the back in the beginning when a group went away. I didn't expect it because the wind was blowing from behind, so I didn't think such a big group would go. The pace was incredibly high all day. Even in the bunch, it was hard because of the wind. On the local lap at the end, it was just a question of staying at the front. The last curve was very important. But I was in a good position there."

Following a very eventful start with many unsuccessful skirmishes, 26 riders took the command after 34km of racing: Damiano Caruso and Nicolas Roche (BMC), Tiago Machado and Maurits Lammertink (Katusha-Alpecin), Sébastien Delfosse and Tom Wirtgen (WB Aqua Protect-Veranclassic), Bert De Backer and Johan Le Bon (Vital Concept), Herman Dahl and Carl Fredrik Hagen (Joker-Icopal), Jacques Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Daniil Fominhykh (Astana), Romain Cardis (Direct Energie), Christophe Laporte and Anders Skaarseth (Cofidis), Kevin Deltombe and Preben van Hecke (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Marcel Meisen (Corendon-Circus), Warren Barguil, Romain Hardy and Sindre Lunke (Fortuneo-Samsic), Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Øyvind Lukkedal (Team Coop), Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Delko Marseille-Provence-KTM), Miguel Byron (Holowesko-Citadel) and Sindre Kulset (Uno-X).

Caruso and Barguil, two of the pre-race favourites made their intentions clear. The Frenchman who wants to make it up for a disappointing Tour de France went for the first KOM price at Gandvikklubben, km 88, and sprinted for the second intermediate sprint at km 106.5, coming second to Cardis while Roche settled for third. Barguil also took the second place at the second KOM at Buktfjelled (km 133), behind Lukkedal whereas Kulset has been dropped.

After exceeding two minutes, the time gap between the leading group and the peloton led by Israel Cycling Academy and Rally went under one minute for the first time with 50km to go. Eight riders refused to be reeled in at the difference of their companions 34km before the finish: Machado, De Backer, Dahl, Fominhykh, Skaarseth, Deltombe, Lunke and Kasperkiewicz. Skaarseth outsprinted Lunke and Deltombe at the summit of Tusenvikfjellet, km 156.

The Norwegian trainee from Cofidis also claimed the third intermediate sprint at Høybuktmoen airport and the fourth climbers' prize to become the first King of the Mountains. Skaarseth and De Backer were the last two breakaway member to surrender after Bram Welten (Fortuneo-Samsic) crashed by himself in the middle of the bunch and last year's runner-up August Jensen (Israel Cycling Academy) was hampered by a mechanical with 8km to go.

As Skaarseth and De Backer were about to get caught at bell lap, 6.5km from the end, Angelo Tulik (Direct Energie) and Markus Hoelgaard (Joker Icopal) took over at the front and forged on until they got reined in 300 metres before the line. That was the moment chosen by Mathieu Van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) to accelerate. "I knew they needed twenty seconds or so to stay ahead, the Dutchman commented. The final climb was very hard. When guys are sprinting, you need a lot more attention to get to the finish. I came here with the goal of a stage win for the team. That's already done. We did a pretty great job today. We'll see what the next days will bring. It's too early to talk about GC ambition now."

With the time gaps recorded on the finishing line and the time bonus he got, Van der Poel has 10 seconds lead over Martin, 23 seconds over Barguil, 35 seconds over Jakob Fuglsang, 40 seconds over Caruso, 57 seconds over Tanel Kangert and 1:15 over Jensen who were often mentioned as favourites for the GC. Traditionally, the Arctic Race of Norway is won by a mere few seconds on the very last day.

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