Stephen Williams (Israel-PremierTech) sealed the overall victory at the 2023 Arctic Race of Norway, while Clément Champoussin (Arkéa-Samsic) narrowly edged out Odd Christian Eiking (Norway) in an uphill bunch sprint to win the final stage.
Williams managed to cover all the attacks in the stage finale and finished inside the peloton to ensure he didn’t lose any time.
Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan) finished second on GC just one second adrift, while Kevin Vermaerke (dsm-firmenich) replaced Tobias Johannssen (Uno-X) on the last step of the podium by gaining some bonus seconds early in the stage.
The stage ultimately came down to a sprint finish, but only after Walter Calzoni (Q36.5) was heartbreakingly caught inside the final kilometre having survived at the front for an implausibly long time.
Calzoni was the final survivor of the day’s 15-man break, and went solo 7.5km from the finish, after which he dangled agonisingly in front of the peloton until finally being caught.
In the sprint, Michele Gazzoli (Astana Qazaqstan) went early and led until the final few metres, but was pipped to the line as Champoussin and Eiking came past him.
Though it ended in a sprint, the fourth final stage was a far from straightforward affair for Williams to defend his slender overall lead. The tricky climbs of Skipsfjord and Skaidi were to be tackled inside the last 25 of the route’s 171.4 kilometres, and an uncategorised uphill drag to the finish further complicated matters.
Fifteen riders went up the road to form the day’s break, among them Noah Hobbs (Équipe continentale GroupamaFDJ), bouncing back having lost the overall lead yesterday. The British rider was after the green jersey, picking up points and the intermediate sprints, but ultimately lost out in the classification to Champoussin.
The breakaway group split up on the Skipsfjord climb, with Iver Knotten (Norway), Lennert Teugels (Bingoal WB), Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X), August Jensen (Human Powered Health) and Calzoni cresting it together clear of the rest. Then on the Skaidi climb, Jensen and Dversnes each tried making a move before the one by Calzoni stuck.
Back in the peloton, Williams was coming under pressure from attacks by Eiking and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) but managed to follow each move as the peloton stayed together.
The 2km uphill drag to the finish posed more problems, and attacks came from Tobias Johannessen, Martin, Roger Adrià (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech), but once again none of them managed to stick.
Calzoni was at last brought back soon after Bingoal WB led out the sprint with 500 metres to go, whereupon Champoussin proved to be the fastest.
Results
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