Tour of Norway: Axel Laurance tops Ethan Hayter to win stage 2

Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck) secured the stage 2 victory at the Tour of Norway, sprinting over the line from a front group that emerged on the final climb to Gullingen.

Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) was part of a chase group that managed to close the gap to the front group in the final, and he finished in second place, ahead of runner-up Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Laurance moved into the overall race lead as stage 1 winner, and overnight leader Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) struggled to hold the pace on the final ascent. Laurance now leads the race by 12 seconds over Lemmen and 13 seconds ahead of Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility).

How it unfolded

The second stage at the Tour of Norway was a 204.8km race that started in Odda and finished on the summit in Gullingen.

The breakaway emerged after the first 40km of racing that included Sean Flynn (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Filip Řeha (ATT Investments), Hugo Scala Jr (Project Echelon Racing), and Anton Stensby (Team Coop-Repsol).

The quartet extended their lead to over three minutes at the halfway mark of the race, which included the Hogganvikbakken climb and the roads to Gullingen.

Lidl-Trek set the pace from behind the peloton for their overall race leader, Thibau Nys. ATT Investments also contributed to the efforts to keep the breakaway in check.

Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) was involved in a crash in the peloton with 45km to go, but the Belgian was quickly back on his bike and in the race a kilometre later.

Up in the breakaway, Scala was distanced from the move with 37km out, leaving Stensby, Řeha and Flynn to continue forward as the gap fell to two minutes.

Stensby surged into the base for the final ascent, distancing Řeha and Flynn and holding onto a slim 20 seconds on the chasing field, but he, too, was caught on the lower slopes.

Nys showed signs of struggle on the upper slopes of the climb as a small group of riders surged ahead. Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Ben Zwiehoff (Bora-hansgrohe), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike), Carl Fredrik Hagen (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Marco Brenner (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility).

Inside the final kilometre, the front group swelled to 11 riders, including Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers).

Laurance started his sprint from the front group and claimed the win, narrowly holding off the rest of the field, with Hayter finishing in second place and Lemmen holding on for third.

Results

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