Hønefoss, 25th of May – 2014
It was time to launch out on the final and 166 kilometer long fifth stage of Tour of Norway, which was concluded with a rather flat course but with four laps on a slightly hilly 13 kilometer long circuit in Hønefoss. Tinkoff-Saxo’s Jesper Hansen was fifth overall before the start of the stage and wearing the white jersey.
Three riders tried their luck in order to deny the sprinters of their obvious opportunity on the flat run-in and in the peloton, CCC Polsat worked tenaciously hard to bring down the gap. And as the break was swept up, a dangerous attack from Lars-Petter Nordhaug (Belkin) lit things up in the finale.
But it was a bunch sprint decision concluding the Tour of Norway and home turf favorite, Alexander Kristoff took the final stage.
“It wasn’t your usual final stage parade today. It was quite a difficult stage. Especially when we entered the circuit, the field completely exploded as Polsat were setting a killer pace. We had Jesper, Beltran and Bennati in the first chase group. We’ve had a fairly good race here. And especially Jesper has shown magnificent form securing a top-10 overall result along with taking the white jersey”, said DS, Tristan Hoffman.
Maciej Paterski (CCC Polsat) won the race overall.
