Stage 3: Arctic Race of Norway

August Jensen wins the hill top finish on stage 3 in a photo finish with Dylan Teuns who leads overall

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Stage 3: Arctic Race of Norway

Photos: @ArcticRaceofN

A photo finish after a 5k climb ….

The Arctic Race of Norway queen stage came down to an exciting finale with Dylan Teuns on the attack before sprinting to second in a photo finish to maintain his overall race lead with one stage remaining.

It was another fast start on day three day in Norway with attacks flying off the front of the peloton from the moment the flag dropped. A three-rider group went clear within the first 5km, of the 185.5km course, but the peloton never sat up and, with others trying to bridge across, they were eventually pulled back with 160km of racing still to come.

New attacks began almost immediately as the race reached the hilly middle section, which included two categorized climbs, but the peloton closed every move down before four riders began to distance themselves at the front of the race and, with the gap hovering at under 20 seconds, another four were able to bridge across.

Behind the eight-rider breakaway, the peloton finally sat up with Floris Gerts and Bram Welten setting the pace for BMC Racing Team and allowing the leaders’ advantage to reach over 3’40” as the road began to rise towards the Vassåsen Summit and it hovered there going over the top of the Sæterlihaugen Summit.

And again from the front ….

On the flatter terrain that led the race into the final category one climb to the line in Finnvikdalen, BMC Racing Team continued to lead the peloton and began to steadily cut into the advantage of the breakaway pulling them to within two minutes with 40km remaining.

With a battle of the General Classification contenders brewing, the race charged towards the bottom of the final 5.2km climb, with the peloton trailing by less than one minute before the leaders were swept up as the road started to rise.

The pace on the early slopes of the climb, saw riders spread out across the road almost immediately. A select group of riders, including Teuns and Amaël Moinard, was drawn out at the front of the race with just 4km to go as riders began to try their luck in a late bid for glory.

After chasing the late attacks, Teuns led the front group under the flamme rouge before launching his final sprint towards the summit finish with 400m to go.

However, the stage came down to the last throw of the bike with August Jensen (Team Coop) able to match Teuns’ impressive speed and take the day’s honors. After securing second on the line, Teuns retains his overall lead of the General Classification with an advantage of three seconds over Jensen heading into what will be an exciting final stage tomorrow.

Dylan Teuns: “It was a pretty hard day. For me, it was maybe a bit easier than it was for me teammates. They had a lot of work to do, and the wind only made it more difficult. I am really happy with the work they did for me today. It was amazing.

The final climb was not that hard, and it was really good that I still had Amaël Moinard with me, but I think the perfect scenario would have been to have had the sixth rider here to take me to 600m to go as they started to attack us with 2km to go.

After Amaël had done his job setting a high speed on the climb, I had to do my job and follow the attacks. It was maybe just a bit too early when I launched my sprint, and I am disappointed to miss out on the stage win by just 1cm. When you lose by half a bike length you know you were beaten but today it was so close, it’s hard to take.”

“Tomorrow will be raced right from the beginning, and it will be a hard day. Today I was surprised how fast we raced at the beginning, and I didn’t expect it to take so long and the guys had to cover a lot of moves, so I am really happy with how strong everyone is and that gives me confidence. I don’t think I can think about the overall win just yet. It is so close at the top of the GC and I have an advantage of just three seconds, so it is going to be a hard race tomorrow.”

Dylan Teuns may have not won the stage but he still leads overall.

Big result for the local team and August Jensen 

Stage 3
1. August Jensen Team Coop
2. Dylan Teuns BMC Racing Team
3. Dorian Godon Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
4. Michel Kreder Aqua Blue Sport
5. Eliot Lietaer Sport Vlaanderen – Baloise
6. Quentin Pacher Delko Marseille Provence KTM
7. Rein Taaramäe Team Katusha – Alpecin :04
8. Bjørn Hoem ToreTeam Joker Icopal
9. Carl Hagen FredrikTeam Joker
10. Jakub Kaczmarek CCC Sprandi Polkowice

Overall
1. Dylan Teuns BMC Racing Team
2. August Jensen Team Coop 0:03
3. Michel Kreder Aqua Blue Sport 0:17
4. Eliot Lietaer Sport Vlaanderen – Baloise 0:19
5. Alexander Kristoff Team Katusha – Alpecin
6. Quentin Pacher Delko Marseille Provence KTM
7. Bjørn Hoem ToreTeam Joker Icopal 0:23
8. Carl Hagen FredrikTeam Joker Icopal
9. Amanuel Gebreigzabhier Dimension Data 0:29
10 Jonas Koch CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:33

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