David Lopez rode to a strong fourth-placed finish after a mountainous third stage at the Tour of Norway.

The Spaniard attacked a group of favourites on the mighty first-category Flisetjonn/Gaustaraen climb and opened out a good gap on the steep slopes.

Eventually joined on the snow-lined ascent by stage winner Jesper Hansen (Tinkoff-Saxo), the pair pushed on before the Dane went solo to the finish.

Hansen forced home his advantage on the sweeping descent, eventually taking the stage win by 37 seconds from Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN Qhubeka).

Lopez finished in the chasing pack for third, 1:04 back, while Lars Petter Nordhaug crossed the line in the next group home, 1:29 down on Hansen.

The end result sees Lopez hold fourth overall, 1:15 off the lead while Nordhaug sits 13th, 1:40 off the jersey.

After some early pace-setting from Team Sky the stage burst into life on the climb, with Nordhaug following the early moves with 28km to go before Lopez went on up the road in a decisive move.

After the stage Sports Director Gabriel Rasch talked TeamSky.com through a scenic finale to a gruelling stage.

"David put in a strong ride today," said the Norwegian "He attacked well on the climb, but he just wasn't quite able to follow Hansen over the top. It was very very windy on the descent which made it difficult. 

"Lars Petter said he was feeling good. He followed Edvald when he attacked on the flatter part of the climb. Nobody really wanted to work with him and he was kind of left by himself. He's a bit disappointed about how the stage went for himself but he's really fired up for tomorrow.

"It should be another tough stage and we'll look to try and take back some time if we can."