Arctic Race of Norway 2018 – Stage 3 [FULL STAGE]

August 18, 2018

Arctic Race of Norway 2018 – Stage 3 – Honningsvåg – Hammerfest : 201 km

The 2018 Arctic Race of Norway is a four-stage cycling stage race taking place in Norway between 16 and 19 August. It is the sixth edition of the Arctic Race of Norway and is rated as a 2.HC event as part of the UCI Europe Tour.

Cyclo-cross star in the making Adam Toupalik claimed his maiden pro road victory at the Arctic Race of Norway in a spectacular finale in Hammerfest. The 22-year-old from Czech Republic managed to stay away from the peloton led to the line by his teammate Mathieu Van der Poel, who scored a one-two for Corendon Circus.

Sergei Chernetski extended his lead in the overall ranking thanks to the three seconds bonus awarded to the third placed rider on the eve of the conclusive stage 6 to Alta.

“This is my biggest win,” Toupalik said. “In the last kilometre, I looked behind to the peloton. We were in three and I thought it was time to start. Nobody caught me when I attacked. I looked behind in the last 50 metres and I realized that I’d win and Van der Poel, my teammate, was positioned for finishing second. Only when I crossed the line, I believe I had won though.”

King of the Mountains Sindre Lunke missed out on the points up for grabs at the exit of the North Cape tunnel (km 16) as he came fourth behind Matteo Fabbro (Katusha-Alpecin), Damiano Caruso (BMC) and Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy).

Reaching the continent as Honningsvåg and the North Cape are part of the Magerøya island, the main breakaway of the day was formed by nine riders: Willie Smit (Katusha-Alpecin), Tom Wirtgen (WB Aqua Protect-Veranclassic), Johan Le Bon (Vital Concept), Connor Swift (Dimension Data), Axel Journiaux (Direct Energie), Adam Toupalik (Corendon-Circus), Robin Carpenter and Adam De Vos (Rally Cycling) and Øyvind Lukkedal (Coop). De Vos who was the highest ranked of them in the GC (at 1:37′) dropped back to the pack.

Lukkedal won the King of the Mountains prize at Olderfjordalen (km 97.5) but Lunke’s salmon jersey was safe. “I’ll do everything to keep this jersey on the last day,” the Norwegian from Fortuneo-Samsic said. “I hope this will make it up for the loss of Warren Barguil in a crash yesterday and I’ll send him a lot of salmon to Brittany.” [The King of the Mountains winner at the Arctic Race of Norway wins half a ton of salmon -ed.]

The time difference reached four minutes at the halfway point into the race before the Astana team of race leader Sergei Chernetski set a higher tempo at the front of the peloton to reduce the deficit and stabilize it around three minutes.

“My team did a very good job all day, so if it’s a good day for me, it’s thanks to them,” Chernetski said. “This is a great team! We’ll try to control the way we did it today but two riders behind me on GC are still near. I’m confident but I haven’t won yet.”

Lukkedal also won the intermediate sprint at Kvalsund (km 140) where the conclusive stage will kick off. The breakaway was no threat to the lead of Chernetski since Toupalik was the best placed of them, at 4:19′, so other teams like Wanty-Groupe Gobert took care of the chase to bring the time gap down.

On the first passage on the finishing line with 16km to go, the difference was only 55 second. The front group split to leave Le Bon, Toupalik and Carpenter with an advantage of 25 seconds over the peloton led by BMC and Astana at bell lap (8km).

Carpenter tried to emulate his Rally Cycling teammate Colin Joyce, who won stage 2. He was first of the leading trio on the move at the bottom of the final hill but Toupalik timed it perfectly to anticipate the return of the peloton. The Czech rider was famous for having celebrated an under-23 cyclo-cross world title one lap too early in 2016. He ended up second to Eli Iserbyt.

“This win makes me really happy and I hope it’s not the last one in my career,” Toupalik said. The conclusive stage to Alta is expected to generate another spectacular finale, making Chernetski’s task to succeed to Dylan Teuns a difficult one.

Results :
1 Adam Toupalik (Cze) Corendon-Circus 4:24:08
2 Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Corendon-Circus 0:00:02
3 Sergei Chernetski (Rus) Astana Pro Team
4 Quentin Pacher (Fra) Vital Concept Club
5 Odd Christian Eiking (Nor) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
6 Markus Hoelgaard (Nor) Joker Icopal
7 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling
8 Benjamin Declercq (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
9 Kevin Deltombe (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
10 Nicolai Brøchner (Den) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources
11 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team
12 Laurent Pichon (Fra) Fortuneo-Samsic
13 Dmitrii Strakhov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
14 Danilo Wyss (Swi) BMC Racing Team
15 Maurits Lammertink (Ned) Katusha-Alpecin
16 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Direct Energie
17 Carl Fredrik Hagen (Nor) Joker Icopal
18 Romain Hardy (Fra) Fortuneo-Samsic
19 Steff Cras (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin
20 Robin Carpenter (USA) Rally Cycling
21 Krister Hagen (Nor) Team Coop 0:00:12
22 Michael Schär (Swi) BMC Racing Team
23 Louis Bendixen (Den) Team Coop 0:00:15
24 Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data
25 Iuri Filosi (Ita) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
26 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
27 Martin Urianstad (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team 0:00:18
28 Jimmy Turgis (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
29 Dennis van Winden (Ned) Israel Cycling Academy
30 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team
31 Bjørn Tore Hoem (Nor) Joker Icopal
32 Loic Chetout (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
33 Matteo Fabbro (Ita) Katusha-Alpecin
34 Angelo Tulik (Fra) Direct Energie
35 Erik Nordsaeter Resell (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team
36 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
37 Sébastien Delfosse (Bel) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic 0:00:29
38 Clement Russo (Fra) Fortuneo-Samsic
39 Kent Main (RSA) Dimension Data 0:00:34
40 Johan Le Bon (Fra) Vital Concept Club 0:00:35
41 Julien Mortier (Bel) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic 0:00:45
42 Christophe Noppe (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:01:00
43 Yannick Martinez (Fra) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
44 Adrien Petit (Fra) Direct Energie
45 Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
46 Brendan Rhim (USA) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources
47 Guy Niv (Isr) Israel Cycling Academy
48 Ryan Anderson (Can) Rally Cycling
49 Jesper Hansen (Den) Astana Pro Team
50 Fabian Lienhard (Swi) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources
51 Connor Swift (GBr) Dimension Data
52 Willie Smit (RSA) Katusha-Alpecin
53 Marcel Meisen (Ger) Corendon-Circus 0:01:03
54 Gianni Vermeersch (Bel) Corendon-Circus
55 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:01:25
56 Øyvind Lukkedal (Nor) Team Coop
57 Anders Skaarseth (Nor) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
58 Tiago Machado (Por) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:41
59 Kristoffer Skjerping (Nor) Joker Icopal
60 Trond Håkon Trondsen (Nor) Team Coop
61 Kristian Aasvold (Nor) Team Coop
62 Kevin Van Melsen (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
63 Justin Mottier (Fra) Vital Concept Club
64 Daniel Turek (Cze) Israel Cycling Academy
65 Alexander Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team
66 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) BMC Racing Team
67 Romain Cardis (Fra) Direct Energie
68 Sindre Skjøstad Lunke (Nor) Fortuneo-Samsic
69 David van der Poel (Ned) Corendon-Circus
70 Tom Meeusen (Bel) Corendon-Circus
71 Kenny Molly (Bel) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic 0:01:57
72 Yoann Bagot (Fra) Vital Concept Club
73 Erwann Corbel (Fra) Vital Concept Club
74 Torstein Træen (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team
75 Sondre Enger (Nor) Israel Cycling Academy 0:02:41
76 Jonas Iversby Hvideberg (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team
77 Tom Wirtgen (Lux) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic 0:03:05
78 Axel Journiaux (Fra) Direct Energie 0:03:19
79 Emiel Planckaert (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:03:44
80 Kenneth Van Rooy (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
81 Simon Sellier (Fra) Direct Energie 0:04:08
82 Mark McNally (GBr) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
83 Matteo Dal-Cin (Can) Rally Cycling
84 Andzs Flaksis (Lat) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources
85 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Dimension Data
86 Eliot Lietaer (Bel) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic
87 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team
88 Justin Jules (Fra) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic 0:07:20
89 August Jensen (Nor) Israel Cycling Academy
90 Herman Dahl (Nor) Joker Icopal 0:09:20
91 Krists Neilands (Lat) Israel Cycling Academy
92 Mekseb Debesay (Eri) Dimension Data
93 Wesley Kreder (Ned) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
94 Adam De Vos (Can) Rally Cycling
95 Henrik Evensen (Nor) Joker Icopal
96 Bert De Backer (Bel) Vital Concept Club
97 Miguel Bryon (USA) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources
98 John Murphy (USA) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources
99 Kristian Kulset (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team
100 Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Pol) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
101 Alexis Guerin (Fra) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
102 Gatis Smukulis (Lat) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
103 Nikolay Mihaylov (Bul) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
104 Daniil Fominykh (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
105 Hugo Houle (Can) Astana Pro Team
106 Eric Young (USA) Rally Cycling
107 Sindre Kulset (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team 0:10:45

General Classification after Stage 3 :
1 Sergei Chernetski (Rus) Astana Pro Team 12:34:40
2 Markus Hoelgaard (Nor) Joker Icopal 0:00:07
3 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling 0:00:08
4 Danilo Wyss (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:00:23
5 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team 0:00:37
6 Laurent Pichon (Fra) Fortuneo-Samsic 0:00:38
7 Carl Fredrik Hagen (Nor) Joker Icopal
8 Steff Cras (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin
9 Dennis van Winden (Ned) Israel Cycling Academy 0:00:52
10 Michael Schär (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:00:53
11 Dmitrii Strakhov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:56
12 Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Corendon-Circus 0:01:09
13 Benjamin Declercq (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:01:22
14 Quentin Pacher (Fra) Vital Concept Club 0:01:26
15 Krister Hagen (Nor) Team Coop 0:01:41
16 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:01:42
17 Iuri Filosi (Ita) Delko Marseille Provence KTM 0:01:49
18 Romain Hardy (Fra) Fortuneo-Samsic 0:01:51
19 Angelo Tulik (Fra) Direct Energie 0:01:55
20 Jimmy Turgis (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:01:57
21 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:02:01
22 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:02:06
23 Erik Nordsaeter Resell (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team 0:02:07
24 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:02:09
25 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team 0:02:29
26 Nicolai Brøchner (Den) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources 0:02:43
27 Adrien Petit (Fra) Direct Energie 0:02:51
28 Bjørn Tore Hoem (Nor) Joker Icopal 0:03:02
29 Clement Russo (Fra) Fortuneo-Samsic 0:03:32
30 Romain Cardis (Fra) Direct Energie
31 Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:03:50
32 Maurits Lammertink (Ned) Katusha-Alpecin 0:03:54
33 Adam Toupalik (Cze) Corendon-Circus 0:04:08
34 Jesper Hansen (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:04:34
35 Kevin Deltombe (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:04:46
36 Fabian Lienhard (Swi) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources 0:05:36
37 Connor Swift (GBr) Dimension Data 0:05:42
38 Tiago Machado (Por) Katusha-Alpecin 0:05:51
39 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:06:02
40 Ryan Anderson (Can) Rally Cycling 0:06:31
41 Robin Carpenter (USA) Rally Cycling 0:07:09
42 Sindre Skjøstad Lunke (Nor) Fortuneo-Samsic 0:08:31
43 Kent Main (RSA) Dimension Data 0:08:39
44 Daniel Turek (Cze) Israel Cycling Academy 0:08:51
45 Kevin Van Melsen (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:09:12
46 Johan Le Bon (Fra) Vital Concept Club 0:09:21
47 August Jensen (Nor) Israel Cycling Academy 0:09:49
48 Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data 0:10:14
49 Adam De Vos (Can) Rally Cycling 0:10:59
50 Mekseb Debesay (Eri) Dimension Data 0:12:57
51 Matteo Fabbro (Ita) Katusha-Alpecin 0:15:09
52 Hugo Houle (Can) Astana Pro Team 0:15:20
53 Louis Bendixen (Den) Team Coop 0:15:35
54 Willie Smit (RSA) Katusha-Alpecin 0:15:55
55 Anders Skaarseth (Nor) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:16:25
56 Kristoffer Skjerping (Nor) Joker Icopal 0:16:27
57 Erwann Corbel (Fra) Vital Concept Club 0:16:30
58 Trond Håkon Trondsen (Nor) Team Coop 0:16:37
59 Kenny Molly (Bel) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic 0:16:48
60 Torstein Træen (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team
61 Christophe Noppe (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:17:11
62 Jonas Iversby Hvideberg (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team 0:17:37
63 Martin Urianstad (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team 0:18:47
64 Odd Christian Eiking (Nor) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:18:56
65 Sébastien Delfosse (Bel) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic 0:18:58
66 Marcel Meisen (Ger) Corendon-Circus 0:19:19
67 Andzs Flaksis (Lat) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources 0:19:21
68 Yannick Martinez (Fra) Delko Marseille Provence KTM 0:19:54
69 Kenneth Van Rooy (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:19:55
70 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Dimension Data 0:20:10
71 Kristian Aasvold (Nor) Team Coop 0:20:26
72 Yoann Bagot (Fra) Vital Concept Club
73 Loic Chetout (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:21:46
74 Simon Sellier (Fra) Direct Energie 0:22:41
75 Eliot Lietaer (Bel) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic
76 Gianni Vermeersch (Bel) Corendon-Circus 0:22:53
77 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Direct Energie 0:22:54
78 Øyvind Lukkedal (Nor) Team Coop 0:24:01
79 Tom Wirtgen (Lux) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic 0:24:29
80 Matteo Dal-Cin (Can) Rally Cycling 0:25:15
81 Bert De Backer (Bel) Vital Concept Club 0:25:31
82 David van der Poel (Ned) Corendon-Circus 0:25:44
83 Tom Meeusen (Bel) Corendon-Circus
84 Justin Jules (Fra) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic 0:25:56
85 Henrik Evensen (Nor) Joker Icopal 0:26:30
86 Justin Mottier (Fra) Vital Concept Club 0:27:03
87 Kristian Kulset (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team 0:27:49
88 John Murphy (USA) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources 0:27:56
89 Alexander Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:28:03
90 Brendan Rhim (USA) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources 0:28:39
91 Wesley Kreder (Ned) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:29:23
92 Krists Neilands (Lat) Israel Cycling Academy 0:30:25
93 Herman Dahl (Nor) Joker Icopal 0:30:27
94 Gatis Smukulis (Lat) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
95 Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Pol) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
96 Miguel Bryon (USA) Holowesko-Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources
97 Sondre Enger (Nor) Israel Cycling Academy 0:31:59
98 Axel Journiaux (Fra) Direct Energie 0:32:15
99 Julien Mortier (Bel) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic 0:32:41
100 Alexis Guerin (Fra) Delko Marseille Provence KTM 0:35:19
101 Daniil Fominykh (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:35:25
102 Nikolay Mihaylov (Bul) Delko Marseille Provence KTM 0:35:41
103 Mark McNally (GBr) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:36:04
104 Eric Young (USA) Rally Cycling 0:37:22
105 Guy Niv (Isr) Israel Cycling Academy 0:40:45
106 Emiel Planckaert (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:43:29
107 Sindre Kulset (Nor) Uno-X Norwegian Development Team 0:51:28