Tour of Norway 2025 Stage 1

May 27, 2025 Stage 1 is a nice appetizer for the week to come. It's a 179KM loop starting and finishing in Solakrossen in the far Southwest of Norway in Rogaland county. There are two categorized climbs but they come in the first half of the stage and are not too difficult. The riders finish on a 20KM circuit which will give the sprinters and their lead outs a dress rehearsal before the final test coming back around to the finish. A group of six riders got away, an all Norwegian contingent with the exception of one Dane. The group consisted of Daniel Årnes and Trym Brennsæter of the Norwegian National Team, Ludvik Holstad of Lillehammer CK, Eirik Vang Aas and Storm Ingebrigtsen of Coop-Repsol, and Joshua Gudnitz of ColoQuick. They had a lead of around 2 minutes 30 seconds with 95KM to go but the wind was picking up, rain was spitting down, and the peloton were starting to increase the pace. The rain was pouring down with 74KM to go as they turned and changed direction into much more of a cross wind. Unibet-Tietema Rockets, UAE-XRG, and Visma-Lease a Bike all took pulls on the front and it wasn't long before riders were jettisoned out the back. The wind was ripping from left to right and with 67KM to go, only around 30 riders were left in the peloton and the break was was coming back fast. With 65KM to go, there was a touch of wheels in a large chase group that was 20 seconds from the front of the peloton. About 10 riders went down including last year's winner Axel Laurance of Ineos who had to abandon. The front group was down to 20 riders including four from Uno-X Mobility and Israel-Premier Tech, and three from Visma-Lease a Bike. The pace stayed high but groups did manage to get organize and make it back to the front of the peloton. With 50KM to go, the peloton had grown to around 60 riders. Uno-X Mobility and Visma-Lease a Bike put it in the gutter once again with 43KM to go and cut the group to less than 20 riders this time. The groups came back together with 38KM to go. The pace came back down, giving everyone a moment to breath and the break to open their lead again to over 1 minute. When the peloton were coming up to an Intermediate Sprint in Tjelta with 31KM to go, the wind blew the advertising barriers over right before the bunch went through. It was lucky timing because if it would have happened 10 seconds later, a number of riders would have been hit. The break was down to five riders as they went through the finish line at 20KM to go with a good gap still of 1 minutes 25 seconds. Holstad crashed out of the break on a tight left, leaving four riders to try and stay away. It was still Visma-Lease a Bike, Uno-X Mobility, and UAE-XRG riding on the front but the gap held strong at 1 minute with 12KM to go. The last kilometers were very attritional with wet and twisting roads and a relentlessly high pace. The peloton of only around 30 riders was stretched thin with every rider clinging to wheel in front. The bunch split again on the run-in with 3KM to go to fewer than 20 riders. Inside the last kilometer, Ingebrigtsen was alone with a handful of seconds and the bunch were in tatters from a furious chase. Ingebrigtsen took the final few wet corners at full speed and sprinted to the line, just outpacing the peloton to take an incredible win for Coop-Repsol. Matthew Brennan of Visma-Lease a Bike won the field sprint for second ahead of Tibor Del Grosso of Alpecin-Deceuninck and Juan Sebastián Molano of UAE-XRG in third and fourth respectively.