Norway National Championships 2015 - the land of the (now) former world road champion Edvald Boasson Hagen! A hilly road race in Lillehammer is followed by a flat timetrial.
With EBH back on the startlist, we have one overwhelming top-favorite, obviously. Aker with two teams (6 riders each) as the team to deliver here. Laengen leading the B-team.
Bugge (Risa) with just outsider's chances. Also Risa (9 riders) with two teams.. so will Aker deliver EBH the chance to grab the expected road title?
At least, it seems to be the team's Plan A, as Aker won't make it into the first breakaway attempt:
Skjerping (Quickstep)
K Hagen (Risa B-team)
go early and are allowed a gap..
Ten kilometres into the race, another rider tries to join this duo:
Jacobsen (Bank of Ireland)
He will indeed catch up to the leading two quickly..
The new leading trio builds up a lead up to 2 minutes only, as it's the two Aker-squads and Risa's A-team working hard in the chase:
30km to go and the top-teams look in control so far!
Just a few moments later, Skjerping soloes away from his breakaway companions for an early attempt to drop them. It looks quite promising, as Jacobsen/Hagen struggle to counter..
We now see another attack back in the bunch, too:
Bystrom (Aker B) launches a move 23km before finish, thus putting some pressure on the other Aker-squad!
16km to go, we're entering the final loop, Bystrom quickly catches up to solo-leading Skjerping. His two former breakaway companions have already been reeled in by the peloton, which is just a minute in arrears with Aker and Risa still chasing!
It looks all set for Boasson Hagen to strike late into the race: the leading is 45" ahead of the bunch with now 8km remaining and the top-favorite makes his move now, trying to bridge across Skjerping/Bystrom!
He easily does and just a few moments later, he goes for another acceleration to fly past the duo! Bystrom obviously won't follow and Skjerping has nothing left to counter this strong attack..
Hagen opened up a 50"-gap very soon and with no one but Bugge (Risa) trying to follow, he's going strong towards the expected victory:
Bugge attacked the bunch to also fly past Bystrom/Skjerping, but he's far behind Hagen with just 2km remaining..
..and so it's the domination, Aker had hoped for: Boasson Hagen won't be riding in rainbow, but in his national colors next year.. his team delivered him a perfect situation and the former world champion pays it back with a perfect attack.
Bugge 2nd with 1'54" in arrears, while Bystrom completes the podium already 3 minutes later!
With defending TT-champion Stenersen missing this year, we have a clear favorite in new U23 ITT World Champion Haugard (Volkswagen), who was already runner-up behind Stenersen last season.
Laengen (Aker) or Vassdal (Risa) may be minor threats on a very good day..
Laengen is the first of the three final starters and his new best time at the finish will be the first indicator of which time is to beat here today:
he beats a long leading Boasson Hagen by more than half a minute..
The split times promise a close decision between him and Vassdal, who's now approaching the finish:
new best time, 3 seconds faster than Laengen!
But is it enough to be of any danger for the top-favorite?
Well, not really. Haugard leads the half-time split by already 25" on Vassdal and gains additional 10" at the final split, too..
..and so he rides to a rather easy victory to crown his season with two prestigious TT-titles:
44" ahead of runner-up Vassdal, while Laengen completes the podium. A strong showing by Haugard, so congratulations on this.
Norway National Championships 2015 - the land of the (now) former world road champion Edvald Boasson Hagen! A hilly road race in Lillehammer is followed by a flat timetrial.
