10 riders are at the start line for the Norwegian Championships. There is a lot of interest in Scandinavian riders next year, with Aker particularly expressing interest in becoming a more Norwegian team. They have one of the major favourites here in Nordhaurg, with Hagen and Haavardsholm being two of the others. There are two fairly tough climbs today, with one maxing out around the 14% mark. Neither is long, but given the number of times going over it this should be a tough day in the saddle.
Our first attack of the day goes fairly quickly. The riders are: Kristoff Haugard Vassdal Lund
Only 3 teams have multiple riders here, Venchi, Aker and B&O, all of whom have two. B&O don’t have anyone in this front group, so Stenersen gets on the front and pulls them back.
The next attack looks much like the first with three of the same four going: Kristoff Haugard Vassdal
Once again Stenersen pulls this back, however. He is really determined to set this up for his team leader, who has had a fairly disappointing season thus far.
Now it is time for Lund to give it a go.
And once again it is Stenersen putting in the hard yards. In fact this seems to put a dampener on all the attacks, and the group rides around for a few laps together, until something unexpected happens. Stenersen pulls free with Hagen and Lund!
This is a big move, so Nordhaug moves to shut it down and brings the whole race back together. That’s a moment of panic over for everyone, but the pace is still high.
And so high in fact that once again there is a rupturing! The same three riders go free once again but this time Nordhaug is along for the ride as well! Both Aker and B&O riders are here, and Stenersen gets some help as Lund starts working too.
The two domestiques here are struggling a bit, as EBH and Nordhaug both decide to work together and push on, keeping a big distance back to the peloton.
So it is going to come down to these two as they have a gap of over 5 minutes back to the pack where the Venchi riders are finally getting organised.
And with 20km to go Boasson Hagen finally makes a move!
He can’t get too far, as Nordhaug pulls him back, but this just spurs EBH on to another move! This time he pulls out 40 seconds!
And Edvald Boasson Hagen wins it! The Norwegian cycling fans have a collective head explosion!
The TT championship will likely come down to two men. First up we have Hushovd, the defending champion. He is aging a bit and it is possible that this will be his last real chance to win this.
And he sets the best time, a solid 55’03” over 38.5km.
The challenger is TT specialist Stenersen, who impressed everyone with his huge performance in the road race.
And he gets a big reward for his efforts as he takes the Norwegian TT championship, winning by 34”.
