Glava Tour of Norway: Kristoff wins second straight stage

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Alexander Kristoff confirmed his current supremacy over Norway’s super star Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky in the second, slightly uphill sprint finish of the Glava Tour of Norway in Skien.

The Katusha rider overcame difficult conditions as it rained continuously during the whole day with temperatures that didn’t exceed 10°C.

“It feels great to win again," Kristoff reacted while shaking with cold.

“But it’s so cold that it’s difficult to enjoy the victory. When I came to this race, I said I wanted to win the first three stages, so I have to try again tomorrow to reach my goal but there’ll be a lot of riders eager to beat me.”

Stage 3 is expected to be highly popular on Norway’s national day with people out in their traditional dresses.

On the roads of the Telemark region where Nordic skiing has its origins, stage 2 was contested in a similar scenario as the previous day. Seven riders went away early: Sander Cordeel (Lotto-Belisol), who passed in first position over the two climbs of the day and became the King of the Mountains, Thomas Degand (Accent Jobs-Wanty), Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural), Laurens de Vreese and Stijn Neirynck (Topsport-Vlaanderen), Michael Reihs (Cult) and Fillip Eidsheim (Oster Hus) who made the breakaway for the second day in a row.

This time, the peloton didn’t give them a margin of even three minutes, so their chances to succeed were very slim even though one of the two final laps was cancelled due to the very bad weather conditions.

Kristoff was prompt to apologize to Boasson Hagen for having cut his line unintentionally. “My brakes weren’t working in the last corner. I wanted to stay behind Edvald but I couldn’t. It was slippery," explained the sprinter from Stavanger who knew the circuit as he won the 2011 Norwegian championship in the same street in a two-man sprint against Vegard Stake Laengen.

Boasson Hagen who is definitely not a man of controversies didn’t express any anger at Kristoff’s risky move in the finale. “I was just happy to stay on my wheels," answered the reigning Norwegian champion. “I don’t want to accuse him of anything. We do an outdoor sport with wet and dangerous corners, that’s how it is. I’m satisfied to score more time bonus today. There are more days to come.”

It was not only the same Norwegian duo at the front. The hosting country even scored a triple with 19-year-old Sondre Holst Enger of Team Plussbank taking the third place from Lithuania’s Edvaldas Siskevicius (Sojasun).

“This is an excellent result," said the protégé of Greg LeMond’s former domestique Atle Kvalsvoll. “I was hoping for such a performance at the Tour of Norway but it was extremely hard today and I was just happy not to crash. I follow Edvald’s wheel.”

Kristoff expressed his satisfaction to see a young compatriot doing well. “It’s very good to see good young riders behind us, there’ll be more Norwegian pros in the future," said the race leader.