Stage 2 offered another sprint stage with Team Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff working off his lead-out train to earn a second victory in two days and retain the yellow race leader’s jersey. Kristoff’s wins in the 5th edition of the Tour of Norway equal those of last year and bring his 2015 victory count to 13 wins and to 22 for the team. Kristoff’s total brings him even with Mark Cavendish for most wins so far in the 2015 racing season.

“Sven Erik was in perfect position for the last few km’s and then we had Marco and Jacopo after him – at these speeds they were more than enough. I think I started my sprint at 150 m to go at 70km/h so there was no problem. There were many teams interested in bringing up their guys. I had a perfect lead out and could control it but these downhill sprints are a little bit dangerous to be in the front. We were the first team into the finish line but I was happy no one else came really fast from behind,” said Alexander Kristoff.

Teammates Sven Erik Bystrøm, Jacopo Guarnieri and Marco Haller were the three riders who made up the sprint train for Kristoff.

Five riders went clear on the 199 km stage from Drammen to Langesund while Team Katusha maintained a presence at the front of the main field with Egor Silin and Dmitriy Kozonchuk to control the gap to the break. With less than 7 km to go the group was all together as they ticked off the kilometers to the finish line. Kristoff’s teammates worked to keep him in the front and the Norwegian rider kicked hard to take back-to-back wins in his home tour. Alex Kristoff retained the leader’s jersey for a second day, currently holding 8-seconds to Caleb Ewan and 14-seconds to Vegard Stake Laengen of Team Joker.

Second place on the stage went to Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) and third to Andrew Fenn of Team Sky, all on the same time for the mass sprint. Jacopo Guarnieri was able to finish 7th.

The Tour of Norway continues on Friday as the peloton heads to the first climbs for the 2015 race.  At 185 km the stage begins in Skien and ends in Rjukan after a category 1 climb close to the final. Asked about his chances for the GC, Kristoff acknowledged that the climbing stages for the next two days should be too hard for him.

“These next stages are very tough,” concluded Kristoff.