CRO Race: Alexander Kristoff takes sprint victory on stage 5

CRO race 2024
Alexander Kristoff of Uno-X Mobility won stage 5 of CRO race (Image credit: Sport-IT)

Alexander Kristoff (Uno X Mobility) was the fastest to the line on stage 5 of the 2024 CRO race to claim his second win of the week in the town of Karlovac.

The Norwegian’s team took control in the final three kilometres to deliver their leader perfectly to the line. Kristoff had the power to hold off Israeli national champion Oded Kogut (Israel-Premier Tech) and Giovanni Lonardi (Polti-Kometa).

Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) kept his lead going into the final stage but saw his advantage cut significantly throughout the stage as dsm-firmenich-PostNL held things together for Tobias Lund Andresen to take eight seconds back through the stage’s intermediate sprints. McNulty now leads Andresen by 14 seconds, with Edoardo Zambanini in third place overall.

“I felt better today. I've been struggling a bit the last days, but today I felt from the start I had more normal legs and I could sit in the front all day,” Kristoff said in a TV interview after the finish.

“It was a short stage, normally I'm not super in that, but today the team put me in a really good position for the final kilometres. I for sure had the easiest run in, and at the end I managed to hold them behind me. I'm very happy I got a perfect lead out from all the guys, and I'm very grateful,” he added.

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Dan is a freelance cycling journalist and has written for Cyclingnews since 2023 alongside other work with Cycling Weekly, Rouleur and The Herald Scotland. Dan focuses much of his work on professional cycling beyond its traditional European heartlands and writes a regular Substack called Global Peloton.

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