Simon Spilak won the 3rd stage of the Arctic Race of Norway, after he and Steven Kruijswijk (Belkin) broke away from the group of favourites in the final 10km’s.
Subsequently, Kruijswijk would pull on the overall leaders jersey thanks to their 15 second time gap. Jonathan Hivert (Belkin) won the group sprint for 3rd place.
The 23 year old South African, Johann van Zyl, has been trying his hand at a good GC result for the first time and so far Van Zyl has been impressive. After being well positioned by his Team MTN-Qhubeka team mates before the tough final 10km’s, Van Zyl kept his composure on the finishing climb and never looked in trouble among the favourites.
With Kruijswijk and Spilak up the road, no single team would put together a cohesive effort to bring the duo back. Riders were attempting to jump across the gap one by one but this was proving to be unsuccessful. In the end, the 36 rider front group which included our Van Zyl would sprint home just 15″ down on the two World Tour riders.
Rider – Johann van Zyl
I am quite happy with today’s outcome but i somehow expected a much harder finish. I had good legs so i was waiting for the race to finally explode on the climb, but with the 2 riders ahead there weren’t any other teams who were wanting to put the hammer down. I am not sure about tomorrow stage, so i am preparing for a real hard stage, which i hope it is. If i can gain a sneaky 6-8 seconds somewhere then i might finish top 15 on GC. The guys were awesome today, they did everything for me and brought me to the final climb in the perfect position so i must thank them.
Arctic Tour of Norway (Norway) – (14-17 August/UCI 2.1) Team Lineup
Andreas Stauff (GER)
Johann van Zyl (RSA)
Martin Reimer (GER)
Martin Wesemann (RSA)
Songezo Jim (RSA)
Nicolas Dougall (RSA)
Stage Profiles Overview
Stage 3 – Saturday 16 Aug (132km)
Stage 4 – Sunday 17 Aug (165km)
