Ramon Sinkeldam featured as part of a strong seven rider breakaway on the final stage of the Arctic Race of Norway, a break that was eventually brought back before the tough finale.

The seven riders got away after the first intermediate sprint of the day before building an advantage of up to three minutes before the chase started to close in. The race reached its climax on four laps of a finishing circuit with a tough ascent to be tackled each lap. Once caught the front of the race got smaller and smaller as the attacks for the overall classification came.

In the final kilometres Silvan Dillier (BMC Pro Cycling) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) broke clear to fight out the stage with Dillier coming out on top. Rein Taaramae (Astana) did enough to secure the overall classification.

Behind, Fredrik Ludvigsson was first home for Team Giant-Alpecin in 29th place, placing him in 22nd overall.

“There was a very high speed in the beginning until the first bonus sprint, and Max [Walsheid] sprinted there to second place behind Kristoff there, he just wanted to test himself he said,” explained coach Dirk Reuling after the stage. “Then a group of seven riders went away with Ramon in and they got max of three minutes.

“We came onto a really hard, technical local lap to finish and here the breakaway was caught already on the first lap. Thierry [Hupond] and Fredrik rode strongly and were able to follow the group of Hermans for a long time but were eventually dropped on last lap so there was no result. Despite not getting the results might have hoped for, it was a good race for us to build on team work with some of the younger guys and test ourselves.”