Visma superstar Brennan holds off Van Gils on grueling finish in Tour of Norway and hits a double

Racing in Norway is unpredictable. One day, it's sunny and pleasant; the next, it snows, and the riders suffer. The first stage of this edition of the Tour of Norway was also quite eventful: stormy weather caused a surprise. The 20-year-old Norwegian Stom - yes, Storm - Ingebrigtsen won his first professional race and took the lead in his home country.

The young rider from Coop-Repsol would have his work cut out defending that leader's jersey because the second stage was extremely difficult. It was constantly up and down, and the final was really tough, with two short climbs in the last 8 kilometers. The breakaway of the day was formed by three riders, two of whom were Norwegians: Kasper Haugland (Norwegian national team) and Brage Aulstad (Lillehammer CK), who were joined by Emil Toudal (ColoQuick). They didn't get much of a lead, and with the difficult final stretch ahead of them, they only had a 2-minute lead.

The climb to Sirdalstoppen opened the final stretch. It wasn't difficult (2.4%) but was unpredictable and 15.9 kilometers long. You would think that not much would happen, but Mikel Bjerg saw things differently. The man from UAE Team Emirates - XRG accelerated, and Thomas Gloag (Visma | Lease a Bike) jumped with him. It was still 70 kilometers to the finish, but the pair opened a gap. The 4-minute gap was closed in 20 kilometers, leaving us with four leaders after Aulstad dropped out.

The peloton followed about 1.30 minutes behind. Picnic PostNL and Uno-X Mobility had no choice but to chase, but the cooperation at the front was not good. Gloag had been on Bjerg's wheel to the breakaway group, and once he had caught up, he didn't pedal. The early breakaway riders were eventually dropped, but the Dane couldn't go it alone. So he was caught, too, along with his uncooperative companion. And so a somewhat thinned-out peloton headed into the difficult final.

The climb to Dirdal was the first obstacle. There, UAE attacked again: Alessandro Covi, among others, went full throttle, but Visma | Lease a Bike controlled the race. However, the peloton had been significantly thinned out, so the attacks kept coming. Israel - Premier Tech, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, and Lotto kept the pace high, though, so we got a nice finale on the difficult finish.

Jan Christen broke away on the last hill. It looked promising for the Swiss rider for a long time, but he was caught 400 meters from the finish. Victor Langelotti (INEOS Grenadiers) was the first to go, but he went too early. Matthew Brennan timed his sprint perfectly and held off Maxim Van Gils. Langelotti finished third.