Arctic Race of Norway: Toupalik wins stage 3

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Cyclo-cross star in the making Adam Toupalik claimed his maiden pro road victory at the Arctic Race of Norway in a spectacular finale in Hammerfest. The 22-year-old from Czech Republic managed to stay away from the peloton led to the line by his teammate Mathieu Van der Poel, who scored a one-two for Corendon Circus.

Sergei Chernetski extended his lead in the overall ranking thanks to the three seconds bonus awarded to the third placed rider on the eve of the conclusive stage 6 to Alta.

"This is my biggest win," Toupalik said. "In the last kilometre, I looked behind to the peloton. We were in three and I thought it was time to start. Nobody caught me when I attacked. I looked behind in the last 50 metres and I realized that I'd win and Van der Poel, my teammate, was positioned for finishing second. Only when I crossed the line, I believe I had won though."

King of the Mountains Sindre Lunke missed out on the points up for grabs at the exit of the North Cape tunnel (km 16) as he came fourth behind Matteo Fabbro (Katusha-Alpecin), Damiano Caruso (BMC) and Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy).

Reaching the continent as Honningsvåg and the North Cape are part of the Magerøya island, the main breakaway of the day was formed by nine riders: Willie Smit (Katusha-Alpecin), Tom Wirtgen (WB Aqua Protect-Veranclassic), Johan Le Bon (Vital Concept), Connor Swift (Dimension Data), Axel Journiaux (Direct Energie), Adam Toupalik (Corendon-Circus), Robin Carpenter and Adam De Vos (Rally Cycling) and Øyvind Lukkedal (Coop). De Vos who was the highest ranked of them in the GC (at 1:37') dropped back to the pack.

Lukkedal won the King of the Mountains prize at Olderfjordalen (km 97.5) but Lunke's salmon jersey was safe. "I'll do everything to keep this jersey on the last day," the Norwegian from Fortuneo-Samsic said. "I hope this will make it up for the loss of Warren Barguil in a crash yesterday and I'll send him a lot of salmon to Brittany." [The King of the Mountains winner at the Arctic Race of Norway wins half a ton of salmon -ed.]

The time difference reached four minutes at the halfway point into the race before the Astana team of race leader Sergei Chernetski set a higher tempo at the front of the peloton to reduce the deficit and stabilize it around three minutes.

"My team did a very good job all day, so if it's a good day for me, it's thanks to them," Chernetski said. "This is a great team! We'll try to control the way we did it today but two riders behind me on GC are still near. I'm confident but I haven't won yet."

Lukkedal also won the intermediate sprint at Kvalsund (km 140) where the conclusive stage will kick off. The breakaway was no threat to the lead of Chernetski since Toupalik was the best placed of them, at 4:19', so other teams like Wanty-Groupe Gobert took care of the chase to bring the time gap down.

On the first passage on the finishing line with 16km to go, the difference was only 55 second. The front group split to leave Le Bon, Toupalik and Carpenter with an advantage of 25 seconds over the peloton led by BMC and Astana at bell lap (8km). 

Carpenter tried to emulate his Rally Cycling teammate Colin Joyce, who won stage 2. He was first of the leading trio on the move at the bottom of the final hill but Toupalik timed it perfectly to anticipate the return of the peloton. The Czech rider was famous for having celebrated an under-23 cyclo-cross world title one lap too early in 2016. He ended up second to Eli Iserbyt.

"This win makes me really happy and I hope it's not the last one in my career," Toupalik said. The conclusive stage to Alta is expected to generate another spectacular finale, making Chernetski's task to succeed to Dylan Teuns a difficult one.
 

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