Corbin Strong impresses with stage victory in Norway, Pidcock not yet in contention

With Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), Christian Scaroni, Clément Champoussin (both XDS Astana), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla) among others, the Norwegian four-day race had a strong field of participants. In addition to Astana and Jayco AlUla, Cofidis, Picnic PostNL, Arkéa-B&B Hotels, and Intermarché-Wanty were also WorldTour teams that took part in the 2.Pro race.

In heavy rain, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre fired the starting shot in Borkenes. With four climbs and around 2,400 meters of elevation gain, it was still unclear whether there would be a sprint for the first leader's jersey in the finish town of Harstad. The final kilometer was also quite treacherous, which meant that we were in for some spectacular action.

From the start, Romain Combaud (Picnic PostNL), Belgian Abram Stockman (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Vetle Torin Eskedal (Norwegian selection), and Storm Ingebrigtsen (Coop-Repsol) broke away. However, the quartet did not get much breathing space from the peloton. This allowed Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X) and Georg Rydningen Martinsen (Lillehammer CK) to join them, bringing the number of riders at the front to six.

The six riders in the breakaway entered the last hundred kilometers with only a small lead. Picnic PostNL, Q36.5, and Cofidis saw opportunities for the stage win and kept the breakaway short. Ingebrigtsen and Stockman shared the points on the first two climbs of the Storjorda and fought for the first mountain jersey. Then they had to reach the double climb of Storjorda before the peloton.

They succeeded, despite an increasing number of teams coming to the front of the peloton. Ingebrigtsen took the points twice in a row and could look forward to a place on the podium. Then it was up to the peloton, where Q36.5 in particular worked hard for Pidcock as they approached the finish. Despite three riders dropping out in the final phase, it came down to a sprint finish in Harstad. After a few wet and technical corners, we started the sprint with 700 meters to go. Israel-Premier Tech was extremely dominant, and after Riley had first launched Strong, he finished second himself. Pidcock finished outside the top ten.