After winning yesterday's queen stage, Bauke Mollema fought valiantly in today's final stage but failed to keep up with eventual winner Maciej Paterski in the finale. Having lost time to Paterski and Marc De Maar in the flat second stage, the Dutchman regretted having thrown away the overall victory.

Bauke Mollema secured third place overall in the Tour of Norway today. The Dutchmen of the Belkin Pro Cycling Team finished 18th behind stage five winner, Alexander Kristoff (Katusha). CCC Polsat Polkowice’s Maciej Paterski took the overall victory.

“Today, almost everything went according to plan,” said Sports Director Erik Dekker. “Barry Markus held the break on a short leash in the run-up to the local lap. Stef Clement, Paul Martens and Sep Vanmarcke raised the pace after that and in the penultimate lap, it was up to Lars Petter Nordhaug. He attacked, but was caught by the bunch at the foot of the final climb.

“Then it was Bauke’s turn. Unfortunately, he just wasn’t good enough to do his thing. If he had had legs like yesterday he would have had a good chance.”
 

Mollema won the fourth stage yesterday and Sep Vanmarcke took the victory on Friday. Partly thanks to those wins, Dekker looks back on the Tour of Norway with a good feeling.

“It’s been a good week. We won two stages, and both of those victories came from good teamwork. For many of our riders, this race was a first step towards another peak. It’s good to see that Sep and Bauke can win a race when they’re at ninety per cent of their abilities.”
 

Mollema wanted to fight for the overall win but still came away satisfied with his performance in the Tour of Norway.

“I’m particularly pleased with my stage win. It was a fine victory. It would have been nice to move up in the overall today, but unfortunately, I wasn’t good enough. With a little bit of luck, I could have won the race, but De Maar and Paterski took fifteen seconds in a flat stage, which proved to be too much for me.”
 

Mollema flies directly from Norway to Spain today to train at altitude in the Sierra Nevada with Stef Clement, Robert Gesink and Tom Leezer. Last year, he followed a similar path towards the Tour de France.

“And that went well. This year, I hope to benefit from it again.”