Kristoff wins Tour des Fjords opener

Alexander Kristoff expressed his domination in his home race beyond expectation as his Katusha team was so strong that his lead-out man Marco Haller took second place during stage 1 of the Tour des Fjords in Norheimsund. Orica-GreenEdge’s Daryl Impey came third in his first race back after a post-classics break.

“Tour des Fjords is my home race even though I’m not yet in the county where I live," Kristoff told Cyclingnews. “It’s always nice to win but even nicer to win close to home. It’s hard to rate this 14th victory in my season so far. The Tour of Flanders is above them all of course but I also rate the Paris-Nice stage higher than today. I’m particularly happy with how the team protected me today.”

Katusha rode behind the six-man breakaway that took shape after 10 kilometers of racing. Etienne van Empel (Roompot), Ronan van Zandbeek (De Rijke), Jeroen Meijers (Rabobank development), Adrian Gjølberg (FixIT.no), Andreas Erland (Sparebanken Sør) and Niklas Gustavsson (Tre Berg-Bianchi) didn’t get more than four minutes lead.

Preben van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) bridged the gap by himself with 40km to go but the climb on the final circuit nearby Norheimsund put an end to the escapees’ ambitions. Van Hecke, Erland and Gjølberg were the last riders reeled in with 11km to go under the combined action of Katusha and Joker, the continental Norwegian team working for their sprinter Daniel Hoelgaard.

The question was how many riders would stay at the front after the second and last passage of the hill. Orica-GreenEdge tried to reduce the group, with Christian Meier and Adam Yates putting the hammer down but Kristoff was never in difficulty.

“This was my first race back since Liège-Bastogne-Liège," Impey explained. “We always knew Kristoff would be hard to beat on home soil but we wanted to eliminate as many riders as we could. We also wanted to put him under pressure. It’s a good start of the second part of the season. It’s gone better than expected. There’ll be a few more opportunities by the end of the week. Hopefully Magnus [Cort] will feel better, he’s been sick. All guys here in the team are in good condition leading up to the Tour de France.”

Kristoff got freight though when he got boxed in at the slippery last corner. “It was a bit stupid by some smaller teams to cut us in the inside of that corner," Haller described. “It was a little bit chaos but after we regrouped, I took the command with 500 metres to go and I continued. I just waited for Alex to pass, which obviously happened. We didn’t expect to make a one-two, but when you get the chance to do it, you take it. I felt so strong today that I had something left to keep sprinting. It’s brilliant. But the main thing is that Alex wins and takes the yellow jersey.”

Referring to a similar one-two finish by Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw on the Champs-Elysées at the 2009 Tour de France, Haller said: “We’re far from there but as the Tour de France is approaching, I’m glad to see the team working that well. I hope that today’s result brings my name to the public and that Alex will take me with him at the Tour de France. Nevertheless, I’m happy to achieve what we did today.”

Stage 2 of the Tour des Fjords is expected to suit the sprinters more than stage 1, so Kristoff’s campaign is far from over, even before he reaches his county in Stavanger on the weekend. 

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