Yesterday Alexander Kristoff saw his chances of winning the Tour des Fjords overall suffer a significant blow when his team failed to bring back a strong 9-rider group in the finale. Today the Norwegian again found himself under the attack when wind and several short, steep climbs again inspired his rivals to put the race favourite under pressure.

 

When the attacks kept flying in the hectic finale, Kristoff had to respond to many accelerations on his own and as he was isolated in the small group that emerged, he also had to rely on many of his rivals to bring things back together. The stars aligned for the local hero and when they passed the flamme rouge, the small group was again intact.

 

Kristoff took control of the situation himself and led the group for most of the final kilometre before his launched his sprint from the front. In a very technical and narrow finale, he narrowly held off yesterday's winner and race leader Magnus Cort who again proved his great potential by challenging the Milan-Sanremo winner in a direct battle.

 

The fourth stage of the race was held on a 179km course from 2020park to Stavanger. In the first part, the riders went up a big climb but the second half was mostly flat. However, the race ended with three laps of a very difficult finishing circuit that included a bigger climb and several short, steep hills.

 

Early on Oscar Landa (Øster Hus), Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural), Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo), Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural), Jacques Van Rensburg (MTN-Qhubeka) and Rasmus Quaade (Tre-For) got clear while Sondre Hurum (Motv3) took off in pursuit. The gap reached more than 4 minutes as the Cult team of race leader Cort took control of the bunch.

 

Hurum never made the junction while up ahead the Caja Rural riders scored points on the climbs to defend the mountains jersey of their teammate Amets Txurruka. The situation seemed to be calm until the peloton suddenly split in the crosswinds.

 

Two group formed and Cult seemed to be on the back foot but Katusha managed to restore order. Up ahead Van Rensburg won the first intermediate sprint ahead of Boaro and Aramendia and the gap had now gone up to more than 7 minutes after the peloton had again slowed down.

 

Boaro beat Van Rensburg and Aramendia in the second sprint while the peloton again hit a section with crosswinds. The nervousness caused the pace to go up and soon the peloton had split to pieces, with a 12-rider ground emerging 30 seconds behind the leaders.

 

Boaro took off on his own when they hit the late climb for the first time while behind the peloton regrouped somewhat. Things calmed down a bit and Katusha took control of the situation, keeping a strong Boaro in check.

 

As they started the final lap, attacks again started to fly. Bjørn Tore Hoem (Sparebanken) and Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) were some of the riders to give it a try but four Katusha riders kept it all under control.

 

Inside the final 10km, Cannondale took over and they brought Boaro back into the fold. Moments later Øster Hus hit the front, setting up Sven Erik Bystrøm for an attack.

 

The Norwegian failed to get clear but more attacks were launched. Kristoff had to respond himself and as the dust settled a group with the Norwegian, Cort,  Sondre Holst Enger (Sparebanken), Marc De Maar (UnitedHealthCare), Marco Marcato (Cannondale) and Michael Valgren (Tinkoff-Saxo) had emerged.

 

Enger took off while more riders rejoined the Kristoff group. Davide Formolo (Cannondale) and Bystrøm joined the Norwegian leader and the trio got a gap that seemed to be big enough to create a surprise.

 

However, several riders combined forces to bring it back together with 3km to go and despite another attack from Formolo, the group was intact when they passed the flamme rouge. Kristoff took control of the situation and responded to an early sprint for Jerome Baugnies (Wanty) to take his second win of the race.

 

With the bonus seconds, Kristoff moved into 3rd and reduced his deficit to 9 seconds and he still has one chance to take the overall win. Tomorrow's final stage has a big climb at the midpoint but is otherwise mostly flat. As always in the Norwegian race, however, there are some short, steep climbs in the finale that could potentially put the sprinters in difficulty.