Chernetckii holds lead heading into final stage
Already leading the race via stage one winner Sergey Chernetckii, Team Katusha’s dominance of the Tour des Fjords became more manifest yesterday with two victories for the WorldTour team.
In the morning’s 103 kilometre stage from Hjelmeland to Forsand, Alexander Kristoff won the massive sprint to the line. He beat Belkin’s Robert Wagner plus the rest of the main bunch, landing success on home soil.
The result helped make up for the disappointment he faced when Kristoff was forced to miss the Arctic Tour of Norway due to a bout of bacterial pneumonia.
“Today I felt better than yesterday,” he stated after the stage, “even if I’m still not in my top shape. I suffered a lot on the last climb, but afterwards I was able to come back and take part to the final sprint.
“I’m happy, this victory is very important for me because it came at home, in front of my fans. The stage was very hard: our rivals attacked a lot and tried to change the situation in general classification. I think the team did a great job to help Sergey, and I’m glad that Katusha managed to keep the leader’s jersey too.”
The team then copperfastened its grip on that jersey when it won the 24 kiometre afternoon team time trial in Stavanger. It beat Belkin – the other WorldTour team in the event – by three seconds, with the Topsport-Vlaanderen squad a further eighteen seconds back.
The net result was that Chernetckii ended the day thirty seconds ahead of Belkin’s Lars Petter Nordhaug.
“In first two stages the team worked very hard, so, of course, all are very tired,” he said. “And today’s time trial was very tough. Anyway, we all are very happy with the victory, this result is very important for everyone. I am happy with the win and with the yellow jersey saved for the moment.
“Tomorrow we will have a very hard stage, but the team is ready to do all possible to win this race in general classification.”
Chernetckii is also the points classification leader and is atop the best young rider ranking. Katusha is best team.