Sprinting in for his third win in a row, Alexander Kristoff handily took his 16th win of the 2015 racing season and brought the grand total for Team Katusha to 25, six of those wins coming in the last ten days.

The win came at the Tour des Fjords in the 166 km road stage from Stord to Sauda, which featured a unique start in the 8 km Bømlo Fjord tunnel at 264 meters below sea level – 4km downhill and then 4km back up to the surface.

"I felt quite good in the tunnel but it was a bit too long for me so the last 1km I was really struggling.  After that a break of 17 guys went away and we were lucky that Jasper Stuyven was riding near me so Trek had the same interests as we did in bringing them back. Katusha and Trek worked well together and managed to take back the break in the start. That was a very hard start to the race. I was thinking for awhile that I had lost the jersey but here I am still in yellow so I’m very happy. Boasson Hagen tried to put pressure on me in the last climb, also Orica-GreenEdge, but I always feel stronger near the end of a race instead of at the beginning, so I was confident that I could follow in the last climbs. I’ve done this last climb in the past and I didn’t remember that it was so long, but when I saw the finish I felt confident that I could win. Truthfully you never know as there are some very fast guys here but I won with a decent margin today. We’ll see tomorrow if I can follow on the climbs but in general tomorrow’s climb suits me much better than today’s in the tunnel. It’s more like a Classic’s climb and I hope to handle it quite well. Can I take five out of 5 stages? It will be tough but I will try," said race leader Alexander Kristoff.

Joining him on the podium were Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) and Edvald Boasson Hagen of MTN-Qhubeka.

Kristoff retained the leader’s jersey for the third time. The original break of 17 riders went clear right from the gun and was chased down by Team Katusha and Trek Factory Racing. A smaller more manageable group of four went next, but the late attacks at under 10 km to go put Katusha riders on the front to bring it all back for Kristoff to sprint in for the win.

Stage 4 on Saturday brings the peloton to a place very familiar to Alexander Kristoff and his teammate Sven Erik Bystrøm, their home town of Stavanger. The course ends in Sandnes after 178 km.