Arctic Race of Norway: Laas wins stage 2

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Martin Laas (Bora-Hansgrohe) won stage 2 of the Arctic Race of Norway, beating Alexander Kristoff (Norway) to the line in Kilpisjärvi, across the border in Finland.

Kristoff was the favourite to win the stage and he hit the front inside the final 150 metres but Laas closed rapidly to pip the Norwegian at the line and claim the honours. Danny van Poppel (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert) placed third ahead of Rudy Barbier (Israel Start-Up Nation), while Manuel Peñalver (Burgos-BH) took fifth.

Kristoff had the consolation of moving into the overall leader’s yellow jersey after picking up six bonus seconds for his second place finish. He is level on time with stage 1 winner Markus Hoelgaard (UNO-X Pro Cycling) but he moves ahead of his fellow countryman on the basis of their placings across the first two stages. Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels) lies in third overall at eight seconds, with Kristian Aasvold (Team Coop) a further second back in fourth.

The combination of an interminable finishing straight and stiff headwind seemed to favour Kristoff’s power and nous, and he was tucked onto the wheel of his teammate Sven Erik Bystrøm in the final kilometre as Israel Start-Up Nation’s Rick Zabel led out the sprint on behalf of Barbier.

Kristoff surged to the front within sight of the line but Laas was moving up behind him and the Estonian delivered a well-timed effort to swoop past at the line to take the stage honours.

“It’s quite good and it’s close to my home. OK, from here it’s 1500 kilometres but Finland is a neighbouring country so it’s quite nice,” said Laas, who confessed to struggling with cramps in the run-in to the finish.

“It was really tough and there was also headwind and it was slightly downhill, so it was also a little bit of a tricky one. To be honest, with 5k to go I had cramps, and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sprint or not. But in the end the team worked really well, and Rudiger [Selig] brought me to 300 metres to go. I followed some wheels from there and then in the last 150 metres I launched my sprint. I saw from the left side that I was faster than Kristoff and I was quite sure I was going to pass him – but in the end it was a close one.”

Kristoff hasn’t won a race since he landed the opening stage of the 2020 Tour de France last August. This was second successive second place after he was denied by the escapee Hoelgaard on Thursday.

“Two days in a row now with second place, I wish I managed to win one of them: that’s life, I haven’t won in a long time,” said Kristoff. “He came from quite far back and it was a slight headwind and that was maybe a smart approach. But at the end it was just my legs. I couldn’t hold him off. It’s a bit disappointing, but I’m getting closer.”

The stage was animated by a five-rider break comprising Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Fenix), Fredrik Dversnes (Team Coop), Oliver Naesen (AG2R-Citroën), Cerial Desal (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) and Cédric Beullens (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise). That quintet had two minutes in hand with 50km to go, before the rugged terrain began to whittle down the move.

Only Naesen, Dversnes and Janssens remained in front after the climb of Skibotndalen with 33km to go, while Uno-X and Israel Start-Up Nation led the chase in the peloton behind. Naesen dropped off the front in the final 20km, but Dversnes and Janssens continued to put up fierce resistance until they were eventually caught with 2km to go.