Tour of Norway: Boasson Hagen hopes stage win a catalyst for success

Counting South African Stefan de Bod’s individual time trial win at the African Continental Championships in March, Dimension Data came into the Tour of Norway with just three total victories in the first five months of the 2019 UCI race calendar.

On Thursday, Norwegian favourite Edvald Boasson Hagen made that four and now accounts for half of the team’s win total this season. It is a stat not lost on the 32-year-old Rudsbygd native and three-time race winner, who not only won Stage 3 (179.7km) in Kristiansand, but also lifted the yellow leader’s jersey from opening stage winner Cees Bol (Team Sunweb).

“I am really happy for this victory,” Boasson Hagen told Eurosport. “It’s not been the best season so far. It started off well, then I got sick and been struggling actually since then.

"The team did an amazing job today to keep me in the front on the laps and managed to be there when they attacked on the top of a climb,” he continued, referring the final three-lap city circuit to close the final 27.5 kilometres of the race. “Worked good together with Ben Swift (Team Ineos) in the last 500 metre. I looked back and saw the peloton coming with big speeds, so just opened up the sprint and hoped for the best. Nobody could pass me and I am really happy for that.

“Hopefully it’s something we can bring with us for the Tour de France and the next races as well,” concluded the three-time Tour stage winner.

Dutchman Joris Nieuwenhuis (Team Sunweb) finished second to Boasson Hagen, but it was fellow Norwegian Alexander Kristoff’s third-place result which helped propel the Team UAE sprinter over hometown hero Kristoffer Halvorsen (Team Ineos) on the points classification.

“[I am feeling] much better today,” said Kristoff, who has been recovering from illness since Hammer Stavanger last weekend. “Pity I didn’t have the win because I felt I had it inside me. I hesitated maybe a little too much and stayed a little bit too long on [Sven Erik Bystrøm] instead of jumping on the next wheel.
“They just had a few metres out of the last corner and it was too big a gap to close.”

The Tour of Norway resumes on Friday with the longest stage of the six-day race — 224.4km from Arendal to Sandefjord. Barring successful breakaway, Stage 4 should result in fourth straight sprint finish.

For full stage and race results, click here.