Sep Vanmarcke (Belkin) proved that he is not just a classics specialist and can also excel in hillier terrain when he became a surprise winner of today's queen stage of the Tour of Norway. Together with teammate Stef Clement, he made it into a strong lead group after the penultimate climb and as no chase got organized, they held off the peloton, with the Belgian emerging as the strongest in the sprint on the top of the climb to the finish. Marc De Maar  (UnitedHealthCare) defended the overall lead.

 

Going into today's first ever summit finish of the Tour of Norway, many riders were a bit uncertain about what to expect. The final climb was not overly hard and no one really know which riders would be able to survive the challenge.

 

The ascent proved to be much easier than many had anticipated and so it was no surprise that the stage was won by a rider who specializes in the cobbled classics and not in the mountains. Sep Vanmarcke emerged as the strongest when he beat Gustav Erik Larsson and Gatis Smukulis (Katusha) in the sprint at the top.

 

The trio were part of a strong breakaway that took off on the descent from the penultimate climb inside the final 30km and was gradually whittled down to just a handful of riders. When they passed the flamme rouge, they still had Vanmarcke's teammate Stef Clement and Jaroslaw Marycz (CCC) for company.

 

With small 6-rider teams in the race and hard terrain, the chase in the peloton never got really organized and instead it was a festival of attacks. However, the main group gradually got closer to the leaders and with 1km to go, it was a close battle.

 

At this point, Clement sacrificed himself completely for his faster teammate and he took a massive turn inside the final kilometre. His hard work made all the difference and allowed Vanmarcke to save energy for the sprint.

 

Marycz fell off the pace while Vanmarcke waited for his moment to strike. When he put down the hammer, however, he proved to be in a class of his own, putting 3 seconds into Larsson while Smukulis finished even further back in third.

 

Clement held onto fourth while Marycz was caught by the peloton just on the line, narrowly taking fifth. It was testament to the easy nature of the climb that Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) had survived to the top, with the Norwegian being narrowly beaten by Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM) in the sprint for sicth

 

Despite having no teammates at his side in the finale, Marc De Maar was fortunate to see the gap being reduced sufficiently in the finale and so he defended his narrow three-second lead over Maciej Paterski (CCC). Larsson moved into third while Vanmarcke, Smukulis and Clement failed to benefit from their ride in the overall standings as they had already lost time yesterday.

 

De Maar faces what could be a much sterner test tomorrow in the stage that has historically been the queen stage of the race. The 195km stage to Lillehammer ends with two laps of a tough circuit that includes a major climb that precedes a descent, a flat stretch and a final small hill to the finish.

 

A summit finish

For the first time ever, the Tour of Norway included a summit finish as the 181km third stage from Årnes to Budor ended at the top of a gradual, not very steep ascent. The first part of the stage was mostly flat but in the finale, the riders went up a warm-up climb before descending to the bottom of the final challenge.

 

For the second day in a row, the riders escaped the Norwegian rain as they headed out on the course under beautiful sunshine. There was a singly non-starter as Øyvind Lukkedal (Ringeriks-Kraft) hadn't recovered from yesterday's crash.

 

The break takes off

With the stage having a very uncertain outcome and the teams consisting of only 6 riders, it was not surprise that many riders saw a breakaway as having a good opportunity. Hence, the start was very fast and after 15km of racing, a break still hadn't formed.

 

That changed when Tom Van Asbroeck (Topsport Vlaanderen) who was fourth on GC, attacked just before the first intermediate sprint. He was joined by Christer Jensen (Motiv3), Marcus Karlsson (Ringeriks) and Amund Grøndahl (Sparebanken) and the quartet had a 1.40 gap after 27km of racing.

 

Van Asbroeck drops back

At that point, Van Asbroeck beat  Grøndahl and Karlsson in the first intermediate sprint. The Belgian had now reached his target and decided to drop back to the peloton where UnitedHealthCare had taken control for race leader De Maar.

 

At the 50km mark, the gap was 2.50 but the escapees were not allowed much more than that. For most of the day, the gap hovered around the 3-minute mark and was 3.20 with 52km to go.

 

Förster works hard

Robert Förster did a lot of work in the peloton to control the situation for De Maar and with 36km to go, they had brought the gap down to 2 minutes. At this point, the battle for position for the first climb had really kicked off and so the gap was now melting away.

 

As they headed up the lower slopes, Caja Rural took control, with Antonio Molina setting the pace. The gap had now come down to less than a minute while Jensen had been dropped from the front group.

 

Karlsson takes off

Molina, one of his teammates and the CCC riders Marycz and Branislau Samoilau briefly got a gap but decided to fall back to the peloton. For the rest of the climb, Caja Rural kept the pace high to avoid any attacks.

 

Karlsson dropped Grøndahl and passed the top as the lone leader while Peio Bilbao (Caja Rural) attacked from the peloton to take third. He was quickly swallowed up though and instead new attacks were launched on the descent.

 

The decisive move

With 26km to go, Marycz made a move and Vanmarcke was quickly to respond. An IAM rider tried to join them but instead it was Clement who bridged the gap. Smukulis also dug deep to make it across and suddenly a strong four-rider group had a big gap as no one really took control in the peloton.

 

The group first caught Grøndahl and with 19km to go, they also joined Karlsson. In the peloton, Caja Rural and UnitedHealthCare led the chase but with 16km to go, the gap had come up to 50 seconds.

 

The chase gets organized

Alessandro Bazzana took his final turn for UnitedHealthCare, leaving De Maar with no teammates. Hence, he had to count on other teams to bring the group back and must have been pleased to see Tinkoff-Saxo and IAM join Caja Rural on the front.

 

The escapees had now hit the lower slopes of the long gradual finishing climb and Karlsson quickly fell off the pace. In the peloton, the riders that had done the chase, fell off and as no one took control, it ended as a real festival of attacks.

 

Larsson takes off

With 9km to go, the gap was 32 seconds and at this point Larsson and Samoilau attacked. They quickly opened a gap while behind the attacking continued.

 

Sondre Holst Enger (Sparebanken), Ruben Fernandez (Caja Rural), Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC), Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM), Angel Madrazo (Wanty), Angel Madrazo (Caja Rural), Edward Beltran (Tinkoff) were among the many riders that tried to get clear. They were all brought back but there was no real chase going on.

 

The attacking continues

With 5km to go, Frederik Willmann (Ringeriks Kraft) attacked while Madrazo took off in pursuit and they both got a nice little gap. Up ahead, Larsson and Samoilau had joined the five leaders.

 

With 3.4km to go, the gap was still 28 seconds while Willmann was 14 seconds behind. Clement did a massive work in the front group while the attacking continued in the peloton, with Sebastien Reichenbach (IAM), Rutkiewicz, Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural), Baugnies and Michael Olsson (Ringeriks Kraft) among the many riders to try.

 

Larsson attacks again

With 2km to go, Larsson attacked but Vanmarcke was quick to respond. Smukulis, Clement and Marycz also managed to rejoin him but Samoilau was left behind.

 

Clement was the next to try but he also failed to get clear and instead he started to set a brutal tempo to make sure that the break would stay away. Behind, both Madrazo and Willmann had been caught while a move by Reichenbach, Olsson and Baugnies was also brought back.

 

Clement kept the speed high all the way to the final few hundred metres where Vanmarcke launched an impressive sprint that allowed him to take a comfortable victory. A few second later, the peloton rushed across the line, with Saramotins narrowly holding off Kristoff in the sprint for 6th.