Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) confirmed that he is in a class of his own in the Tour des Fjords when he made it three in a row by taking a dominant sprint victory in stage 3 of his home race. After another great lead-out by Jacopo Guarnieri, he was a lot faster than his rivals in the sprint and had plenty of time to sit up and celebrate his hattrick and the fact that he extended his overall lead to seconds.

 

Going into the Tour des Fjords, everybody was expecting Alexander Kristoff to be the man to beat. With the lumpy Norwegian terrain favouring reduced bunch sprints, the strong Norwegian is perfectly suited to his home race which he won last year.

 

In the first two stages, Kristoff confirmed his status as the fastest rider in the race as he managed to come out on top on both occasions. Today he made it three in a row with another hugely dominant sprint victory when a reduced peloton arrived at the finish in Sauda after another very wet day in the saddle.

 

However, it was no easy ride for Kristoff in today’s third leg of the event. After some teams had complained about the lack of aggression in the first part of the race, his rivals really put him and his Katusha team under pressure in the lumpy terrain. It was a great performance not only by Kristoff himself but also from the entire team to make sure that it all came down to the expected sprint finish.

 

With 19km to go, the final early attacker Michael Valgren (Tinkoff-Saxo) had been brought back after Kristoff had been forced to respond to a few attacks himself. However, the aggression didn’t stop here as the riders could sense that Katusha were running out of steam.

 

Jaco Venter (MTN) was the first to try his hand before his captain Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN) tried to put his compatriot under pressure. Mads Pedersen (Cult), Kristoff, Marco Haller (Katusha), Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff-Saxo), Rasmus Guldhammer (Cult) and Frederik Galta (Coop) and a few more riders were the only riders to respond and when the pace went down, it was Galta who took off.

 

Guldhammer and Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) took off in pursuit after a regrouping had taken place and they quickly made it across to Galta. The peloton realized the danger immediately as Orica-GreenEDGE started to chase hard with Christian Meier and Adam Yates while Katusha put Haller on the front.

 

With 10km to go, the gap was still 20 seconds and now Fabian Cancellara (Trek) was also taking some huge turns. The gap started to come down but with 4km to go it was still 10 seconds and the chasing teams were starting to run out of steam.

 

It was now only Haller riding on the front and the in-form Austrian had to do an amazing performance to almost bring the break back when he finally swung off with 1.3km to go. Activejet took over and as they passed the flamme rouge, all was set for a bunch sprint.

 

This was the signal for Jacopo Guarnieri to do the lead-out and he was able to deliver Kristoff in the perfect position. No one could even try to pass the strong Norwegian who had plenty of time to celebrate his win before Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN) rolled across the line to take the minor podium positions.

 

With the win, Kristoff extended his overall lead to 20 seconds over Impey who moved into second place. He has a big chance to make it four in a row as the penultimate stage is tailor-made for him. After a flat start, the riders face a bigger climb at the midpoint before they get to the finish where they end the stage by doing three laps of a 9.6km circuit that includes the small Åsveien climb before the riders descend to another flat finish.

 

A historic stage

After two stages dominated by Kristoff, history was made in stage 3 which brought the riders over 164km from Stord to Sauda. Right from the start, the riders passed the Bømlafjordtunnel which brought them down to 262.4km below sea level from where they climbed back up to sea level to contest the first KOM sprint. From there, the terrain was mainly flat with only some smaller climbs before the riders tackled the second categorized ascent with 21.2km to go. Then it was a short flat section before the riders descended to a flat finish.

 

As it has been the case for the two first stages, it was a very rainy day when the riders gathered for the start in Stord. With the tough opening phase, it was no surprise that the stage got off to a very fast start with lots of attacks.

 

A strong 17-rider group

The situation got dangerous when 19 riders got clear in the tunnel and the group included strong riders like Txurruka, Impey, Yates and Simon Spilak (Katusha). Ricardo Vilela (Caja Rural) was also in the move and he was the first at the top of the climb, followed by Yates, Impey and Spilak.

 

The group was whittled down to 17 riders which worked hard to maintain a 45-second advantage. The surviving members were Damien Howson, Impey, Yates, Meier (Orica-GreenEDGE), Valgren, Brutt Chris Anker Sørensen (Tinkoff-Saxo), Laurent Didier (Trek), Francis De Greefm Marco Minnaard (Wanty), Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka) Txurruka, Eduard Prades, Angel Madrazo (Caja Rural), Pawel Bernas (ActiveJet), Sam Oomen (Rabobank) and Michael Olsson (Trefor).

 

The peloton splits

The peloton had split and the first group was getting closer to the leaders. When they had reduced the fap to 20 seconds, the second peloton had been distanced by 2 minutes.

 

After 50km of fast racing, the front group was caught by the first peloton but this just opened the door for new attacks which made it impossible for the second group to get back. They were still one minute behind when a 4-rider group finally got clear.

 

The break takes off

The move turned out to be the break of the day and was composed of Valgren, Magnus Cort (Orica-GreenEDGE), Wouter Mol (De Rijke) and Nicolas Dougall (MTN-Qhubeka). As the peloton slowed down, they built an advantage of 2.20.

 

Valgren beat Mol and Cort in the first intermediate sprint. The peloton had no intention of letting them get much of an advantage. With 66km to go, they had brought the gap down to just 1 minute while the second peloton was at 4.10.

 

More seconds for Valgren

Topsport Vlaanderen were leading the chase with Katusha but they quickly left it to the Russian tam to do the work. Dmitry Kozontchuk and Sven Erik Bystrøm had to work hard to keep the strong front quartet under control.

 

Valgren beat Dougall and Mol in the second intermediate sprint at a point where the gap was still 1.20. Topsport Vlaanderen had again taken control before they left the work to Katusha.

 

Valgren takes off

The second peloton was getting closer to the peloton and was now only 2 minutes behind. Meanwhile, the attacking started in the front group which was now only 30 seconds ahead of the peloton.

 

Mol was the first to try but it was Valgren who got clear. The Danish champion id a great performance to extend his advantage to 2 minutes when 35km remained. At this point, the chasers were caught.

 

Boasson Hagen attacks

The second peloton had now given up and was losing ground to the main group which was led by Kozontchuk and Bystrøm. As they hit the final climb of the day, MTN-Qhubeka made a big surge with Jay Thomson and Songezo Jim before Yates took over. When the Brit swung off, Venter hit the front and Valgren was now losing ground quickly to the diminished peloton.

 

Near the top Boasson Hagen made his first big attack and only Impey and Kristoff could respond. Brutt also made the junction while Jasper Stuyven (Trek) was working hard in the peloton.

 

Valgren is caught

Impey and Boasson Hagen worked hard in the front quartet before Pedersen and Madrazo bridged the gap. Moments later it came back together and it was Haller who hit the front to control the situation.

 

Valgren was first at the top of the climb while the attacking continued from the peloton. Prades trued his hand but as Katusha, Trek and Orica-GreenEDGE were working together, he was quickly brought back. Cancellara tried to control the situation but couldn’t prevent Venter and Oomen from making an attack.

 

In the end, it was Yates and Oomen who bridged the gap to Valgren but they could do nothing against the speeding peloton. With 19km to go, it was all together and the scene was set for another Kristoff win.