Young Andreas Vangstad of Sparenbanked Sor peoduced a stunning late attack to catch and drop the breakaway before denying the sprinnters in the final stage of the Tour of Norway. Jesper Hansen easily responded to a late surge from Edvald Boasson Hagen to win the overall.

109 riders set off on the final stage of the Tour of Norway, a 174km stage from Fla to the runway of the airport at Eggemoen. The stage finished with three laps of a 12km circuit that was quite hard. There were three non-starters Brozyna (CCC), Verschoor (Novo Nordisk), Eidsheim (FixIT.no).

After tentative attacks from Trek and Roompot riders, a large group of 16 made it clear after 5km of racing. They were brought back by Tinkoff-Saxo before a counterattack of seven went clear, getting a gap before again being pulled back.

Then eight riders went clear at km 30: Popovych (Trek), Breen (Lotto-Soudal), Reihs (Cult), Kerkhof (Roompot), Vanoverberghe (Topsport), Wetterhall (Tre Berg), Groendahl Jansen (Joker), Hafsas (FixIT.no). They were briefly chased by Trusov (Tinkoff) and Cerny (CCC) but they gave up soon after.

Wetterhall then beat Jansen and Vanoverberghe at the intermediate sprint before extending the breaks at 1”45 45km in to the break.

They continued to work well together and the eight’s advantage grew to 2”30 after 60km of racing while Tinkoff-Saxo kept them on a tight leash.

Second place on GC, Edvald Boasson Hagen, had a puncture at 56km from the line and had to get a wheel from a teammate. He made it back as the gap to the break continued to drop between the work of Tinkoff-Saxo and Caja Rural.

As the break entered the circuit at 36km to go, they had only 1”50 and three riders attacked the break and got a gap. They were Groendahl Jansen, Breen and Hafsas.

Katusha came to the fore to ride for Kristoff and the gap was only 1”30 with 17km to go. 

This prompted Andreas Vangstad (Sparenbanken Sor) attacks from the bunch. The gap was still one minute at 12km to go but the break began to split, as Vangstad bridged to Jansen, but Breen and Hafsas were already up the road after an attack.

Vangstad put in a huge effort to bridge to the leaders with 4km to go and they still had 30 seconds.

There were two attacks at 2km to go: Vangstad attacked a visibly tired break and Boasson Hagen used the climb on the circuit to launch his move to try and distance Hansen and take the overall.

Vangstad was still on his own at 1km to go and was able to savour the biggest win on his career, soloing home to take the final stage of the Tour of Norway.

Meanwhile Boasson Hagen was pulled back as Frederik Strand Galta (Team Coop-OsterHus) attacked the bunch and finished second, eleven seconds down. Kristoff beat Ligthart and Guldhammer for third, 14 seconds behind Vangstad.

In the end, this was not a difficult day for Jesper Hansen of Tinkoff-Saxo, who took the overall win in Norway, a huge result for the young Dane. He beat Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka) and David Lopez (Sky) overall by 47 and 1”05 respectively.