Mollema surges to win stage 4 of Tour of Norway

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Bauke Mollema claimed his first win of the year and the second in a row for Belkin at the Tour of Norway, following the example of Sep Vanmarcke as once again, attackers were rewarded in Lillehammer. But it wasn't enough for the Dutchman to take the lead as his former compatriot and teammate at Rabobank Marc De Maar, now riding for Curaçao and Unitedhealthcare, kept an advantage six seconds on him in the overall classification with one day to go.

"This was planned," Mollema told Cyclingnews at the finish. "It's a pity that I'm not leading but there's one more stage. Looking back, we shouldn't have slowed down before the uphill finish as we watched each other a little bit. But that's cycling. Firstly, I'm so happy to win."

Prior to the thrilling finale, a a quartet tried to hold off a group comprising the top three riders on GC, De Maar, but Maciej Paterski and Gustav Larsson. As their teams did most of the work to chase, another break of four riders got away including Alexander Serov (RusVelo) and three Norwegians from continental teams: Stian Remme (FixIT.no), Christer Hagen (Øster Hus) and climber Amund Groendahl Jansen (Sparenbanken Sør).

Groendahl Jansen took the polka dot jersey from Vanmarcke as he earned two KOMs after he was already in the breakaway the day before. "I didn't think I'd do it again today, but someone had to go because we had to be present at the front," the young Norwegian said. "I'm very happy with getting this jersey."

On the start line, De Maar had insisted that he was counting on the work of other teams. He received the help he wanted as veteran Sébastien Hinault took the helm of the peloton for IAM Cycling in the interest of third placed Larsson when the deficit went over eight minutes at km 50.

Belkin was the other active team as they had two cards to play with local star Lars-Petter Nordhaug and Mollema. It was all together with 41 kilometres to go and the main question was about the ability of the sprinters to hold the pace in the final climb as Alexander Kristoff, Gerald Ciolek and Sondre Holst Enger were still up there.

Enger attacked, Kristoff blew and Ciolek struggled at the back of the group. Tour de l'Avenir winner Ruben Fernandez (Caja Rural) made the difference in the final long climb. He was later joined by Mollema, Jesper Hansen (Tinkoff-Saxo) and 19-year-old Odd Christian Eiking (Joker) who became the revelation of the day. This quartet fought off the yellow jersey group led mostly by CCC Polsat for runner-up Paterski but Eiking slipped in the last corner and took Fernandez down with him, leaving Mollema and Hansen in contention for the uphill sprint, which went to the Dutchman with no problem.

"I knew that corner from last year," Mollema said. "I also knew from last year that I had to go away from the group two kilometers before the top of the big hill. The four riders at the front, we worked well together. I still felt good but I didn't know much of the gap between us and the chasers. When the crash occurred, I looked back and I could see the group very close to us."

Larsson was cramping and Paterski had already attacked De Maar once in the climb but IAM and CCC Polsat had rolled out the red carpet for the leader of Unitedhealthcare. "To be honest, we have a pretty strong team but not for the mountains," De Maar said. "My teammates have other qualities and I'll need them tomorrow. We knew I was going to be isolated today, so we saved as much energy as possible. It was a bit of a gamble. It was stressful when Paterski attacked. In the last 10 kilometers, we could see the breakaway. At corners, I was counting the time between the two groups. It went well but the race is not over."

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