Tour of Norway: Evenepoel wins final climb to Voss on stage 1
Belgian outsprints Johannessen to take first leader's jersey
Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) claimed his fifth win of the season and his first after a month-long break on the opening day of the Tour of Norway.
The Belgian rider, whose last appearance was his victorious display at Liège-Bastogne-Liège on April 24, was the quickest in an uphill finish at Voss.
He beat Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X) to the line, with Eduard Prades (Caja Rural), who won this race in 2018, taking the final podium spot at two seconds.
The Ineos Grenadiers duo of Luke Plapp and Ethan Hayter, last year's winner, rounded out the top 10 a further second back.
“It was a cold and hard day. We had some low temperatures, rain, and even some wind, but the guys controlled the race perfectly and played a big part in my success. I am happy to return to competition with a victory and delighted that I had the legs to kick out and make the difference when it mattered," Evenepoel said after earning the 27th pro win of his career.
The 174km stage started out in Bergen and featured mostly flat terrain apart from a couple of short climbs, but the honours would come down to the punchy final climb. QuickStep and Uno-X combined to keep the day's breakaway under control and the race was all together heading onto the haul to Voss, which measured 2.1km at a vicious average gradient of 8.4%.
Attacks came and went but it came down to a dash to the line, with Evenepoel strongest of the lot. After the top five came a larger nine-man group at five seconds, including Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers).
"It’s always great to start a race like this, especially when I think this is the first time that I won an uphill sprint. We know it won’t be easy, but we’ll try to defend the orange jersey in the coming days."
Results powered by FirstCycling
Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*
Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets
After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59
Join now for unlimited access
Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Cyclingnews is the world's leader in English-language coverage of professional cycling. Started in 1995 by University of Newcastle professor Bill Mitchell, the site was one of the first to provide breaking news and results over the internet in English. The site was purchased by Knapp Communications in 1999, and owner Gerard Knapp built it into the definitive voice of pro cycling. Since then, major publishing house Future PLC has owned the site and expanded it to include top features, news, results, photos and tech reporting. The site continues to be the most comprehensive and authoritative English voice in professional cycling.
Latest on Cyclingnews
-
Niewiadoma, Chabbey, Dygert lead Canyon-Sram team with 'fire in the belly' at Tour of Flanders
'Our team has never won this race before, and it's something we're after' says perennial contender Niewiadoma -
Josh Tarling shows Classics potential with determined Dwars Door Vlaanderen performance
Welshman takes sixth after dangling on and off the front group for final 50 kilometres -
Dwars door Vlaanderen crash update – Surgery for Van Aert, Stuyven and Kirsch
Crash impacts riders and teams ahead of Sunday's Tour of Flanders -
‘A beautiful sport with a dark edge’ – Wout van Aert suffers the cruellest blow
Belgian's ill-fated relationship with Ronde and Roubaix continues after crash ends his Classics campaign