Tour des Fjords: Break survives to take opening stage, yellow

FØRDE, Norway – Belgian Dries Van Gestel managed to outsprint the remaining four riders of a five-man break to win stage 1 at the 2017 Tour des Fjords in Førde, Norway on Wednesday afternoon.

The win marked the first of the 22-year-old’s rider’s career. However, valuable time bonuses collected on two of the three intermediate sprints by stage runner-up Daniel Turk (Israel Cycling Academy) gave the 24-year-old Czech cyclist the overall lead, as well as the points and youth jerseys.

“Stage win is always a stage win and that’s something nobody can take away, and the yellow jersey is something that can be taken away, so in that sense there is still a margin of improvement,” said ICA sport director Kjell Carlström. “But it was a good start. We controlled the race from the beginning with Krists Neilands in the break and then Daniel in the break — it was good one.”

The Sport Vlaanderen-Balois rider finished off the 130-kilometre breakaway in the 189.9km opening stage, which closed with two 10km circuits, followed by Turk, Caja Rural’s Héctor Saez of Spain and ColoQuick Cult’s Torkil Veyhe of Denmark.

Algerian Youcef Reguigui (Dimension Data) outkicked the trailing bunch 27 seconds later to take fifth.

“When we came onto the local circuit in Førde we still managed to keep one minute on the bunch,” said Van Gestel. “I knew I wasn’t the best sprinter in the group, but my team manager told me to just go for it, and luckily my legs were still good enough after this tough day.”

The original break formed after the cold, wet ascent up the snow- and crowd-covered Gaularfjellet (763m) just 36.2 kilometres north of Balestrand. The quintet, which also included Norwegian Ole Forfang (Joker Icopal) extended its lead to nearly seven minutes before the peloton started to reel back time. But it was too little, too late for the field which contained pre-race favourite Edvald Boasson Hagen, who is fresh off his third Tour of Norway victory.

However, Boasson Hagen told Eurosport prior to the race that he was still feeling the effects of a crash on the race’s final stage that he eventually won.

“The form should be pretty well, but after the crash I also feel a bit stiff,” admitted the reigning Norwegian road race and time trial champion at the stage 1 start on Sognefjord in front of the world famous Kviknes Hotel. “I was good on the last stage, but after a few days the body got a bit more stiff and sore, so not super today.

“The form is there and hopefully getting better each day of racing,” he continued. “I hope to contend at this race as well.”

When asked if he was surprised the break stuck, Van Gestel said he was not after crunching the numbers in his head.

“When we were 30km from the finish, we still had four and a half minutes and it’s nearly impossible for a peloton to gain more than 1 minute per 10km,” he calculated. “So, if you do the math we had a good chance to stay on the front.”

Thursday’s stage 2 leads from Gulen to Norheimsund (185 km), and features three categorised climbs which could shape the final standings in the five-stage UCI 2.HC road race.

Carlström for one, believes the race is still wide open.

“Tomorrow is another hard day,” explained the retired Finnish pro and former Paris-Nice stage winner. “There is a climb in the beginning and then another in the end, so we have to see how that goes. The bunch wasn’t that far away, so it’s still all up for grabs.”

“Of course it depends on how the other teams are racing, but on paper we will do our best now to defend the jersey.”

For full results click here.