Jesper Hansen soloed to victory on stage 3 of Tour of Norway after dropping his rivals on the final climb of the mountainous stage to Rjukan. The young climber won the stage by a significant margin and leads the race before the last two stages. A great way to win, says Jesper Hansen, while DS Nicki Sørensen notes that the team is already contemplating on a strategy to keep the jersey.
 
As Jesper Hansen crossed the finish line of stage 3, he took the first win of his professional career spanning two years on Tinkoff-Saxo.
 
“It was indeed a fantastic feeling to cross the line taking my first professional win. It’s a great feeling to be the first on the line and the way I won means a lot to me. I’m really happy and would like to thank the entire team for their effort. They controlled the break and Chris Anker helped me a lot on the final climb”, says Jesper Hansen and adds:
 
“Of course, now I’ll do everything in my power to secure the jersey and the overall win. Fortunately, my rivals need more than bonus seconds and with Boasson Hagen 38 seconds from me as second in the GC, I’ll need to pay special attention to him, while the team in general must try to control the events”.

Stage 3 spanned 185km from Skien to Rjukan in mountainous terrain with a 1st category climb followed by a fast descent just before the finish line. After Tinkoff-Saxo had worked to control the breakaway, Jesper Hansen responded to an attack from David Lopez (SKY) on the final climb. Hansen bridged the gap and later dropped Lopez before the summit followed by a strong performance in the headwind into Rjukan.
 
Tinkoff-Saxo’s sports director Nicki Sørensen admits that he’s impressed by the effort of the young Dane.
 
“Jesper was in the group of favorites and Lopez attacked. So he accelerated and bridged the gap of 20 seconds in no time. Then he increased the tempo on the steep part and rode away alone over the top. At some point he had one and a half minute and did a very good job as well on the descent, while Chris Anker controlled the chasing group. He lost a bit of time in the headwind towards the finish line, but it was a very prominent win”, states Sørensen and adds about the effort made.

“I see it as a breakthrough in fact. It was some very strong competitors like Mollema and Schleck that he rode away from and he was clearly the strongest on the climb. Actually it’s not often that you see a race, where the time gaps are this big after a final 1st category climb. So it was a fantastic day for Jesper, for the whole team and also for me in the car”
 
With two stages left at Tour of Norway, Nicki Sørensen underlines that the team will do everything to keep the leader’s jersey.

“That jersey needs to be defended. We are celebrating but at the same time contemplating on how to preserve the lead. This evening we’ll sit down and create a plan but the most important factor is that the guys are motivated and ready to work together like they did today”, finishes Nicki Sørensen.