August 13, 2026
Four days around the Arctic Circle begin today with a 182 km stage from Evenes to Myre that should result in a sprint finish. The first 85 km out of Evenes are mostly flat as the peloton will roll along the coastline of the fjords of the Nordland region. Around half way through the stage is the first of three categorized climbs, the Karingen Summit, a 2.5 km climb at 5.6%. Over the next 70 km, two more very similar climbs are on course, the Storvatnet and Storeidet, with the latter cresting 27 km from the finish. The riders will then pass the finish line on two occasions, the first as an intermediate sprint with 6, 4, and 2 bonus seconds available then the second as the finish line. The last kilometer gently curves around to the left before finally straightening up to the line with only 150 meters to go.
Highlighted Riders
Sprinters - Ethan Vernon, Casper Van Uden, Erlend Blikra, Mathieu Kockelmann, Giovanni Lonardi, Riley Pickrell, Jason Tesson
GC - Alessandro Pinarello, Fabio Christen, Johannes Kulset, Henrik Pedersen, Anders Foldager, Felix Engelhardt, Guillermo Thomas Silva, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Sebastian Berwick, Odd Christian Eiking, Wout Poels, Ludovico Crescioli, Byron Munton
Race Summary
The scenes at the start were nothing short of stunning with beautiful bright sunshine glinting down on neon green vegetation, glacial blue waters, and grey foreboding mountains in the distance. After a short neutral, a break formed straight away with five including Victor Vercouillie of Flanders Baloise, Eirik Vang Aas of Drali-Repsol, Morthen Wang Baksaas of Lucky Sport, Ludvik Holstad of Ringerike, and Henrik Teslo Fjellheim of Lillehammer CK. Their maximum gap was up as high 3 minutes 30 seconds but had been paired down to 2 minutes by the NSN Cycling led peloton with 71 km remaining.
The race continued in a holding pattern with the gap fluctuating between 1 minute 30 seconds and 2 minutes. Once over the magnificent Sortland Bridge, the break started the Storvatnet Summit with 44 km to go and it seemed like their only hope on the stage was to contest the KOM because the peloton were closing quickly. 300 meters from the top, Holstad launched but it was very early. Vang Aas came up along side and Baksaas tried to sneak through the middle. Vang Aas closed the door and Baksaas had to momentarily let off the gas which gave Vang Aas enough distance to hit the KOM first ahead of Baksaas and then Holstad. With Baksaas having taken the first KOM of the day, he and Vang Aas were tied on points with just one KOM left to summit.
Meanwhile behind, Jayco AlUla and Uno-X Mobility came to the front to set the pace and had the leaders at 45 seconds when they arrived at the final KOM with 28 km remaining. When the peloton reached the foot of the climb, Finnish Champion Axel Källberg attacked with his Lucky Sport teammate Teodor De Luca. They quickly skipped across the gap and joined the leaders with 350 meters still to climb and it completely changed the dynamics with three Lucky Sport representatives in the break. The newcomers went to the front until 110 meters to the line when Holstad jumped. Baksaas responded and went over the top with Vang Aas hot on his heels. Vang Aas tried to get around but Baksaas had enough speed in the legs to take maximum points with a bike a throw to take maximum points and the KOM jersey for tomorrow.
The gap suffered with all of the playing around and the peloton was only 23 seconds behind through 24 km to go. The seven leaders reorganized themselves and formed a nice rotation pulling through and off which increased their gap to 40 seconds. NSN Cycling came forward to add to the chase of Jayco AlUla and Uno-X Mobility because catching a break on a circuit is always more difficult. The intensity in the peloton really picked up with 12 km to go and the bunch had the gap back down to 19 seconds when the break entered the circuit with 8.5 km remaining.
Positioning for the finale began with sprint and GC teams alike pushing forward in the peloton. Lotto Intermarché had control of the bunch but riders were spread across the road and it was a real drag race coming to the line for the first time. When the break came to the sprint, De Luca had the most left in the tank and he took the prize ahead of Vercouillie but their time out front was nearly over because the peloton was charging just 10 seconds behind.
The catch was made with 3 km to go and the peloton had trouble absorbing the break given how tightly packed and fiercely fought every position was. Lotto Intermarché were still well organized but they had the trains of TotalEnergies, NSN Cycling, and others to navigate around. TotalEnergies emerged as the dominant team under 2 km to go but they got swarmed by Modern Adventure and NSN Cycling who were neck and neck coming into 1 km to go. Polti-VisitMalta and Uno-X Mobility were patient and came to the front in the final few hundred meters with one man each in front of Giovanni Lonardi and Erlend Blikra respectively. Blikra felt a rush coming from behind so he launched with around 250 meters to go from the middle of the road. On the inside, Lorrenzo Manzin of TotalEnergies came with speed with Jason Tesson in the wheel and Lonardi swiftly jumped on to that train. Tesson and Blikra were leading at 100 meters to go but Lonardi had the speed to come out of Tesson's slipstream in the dying meters. With a bike throw, Lonardi hit the line first and raised his arms wide and high in celebration. Tesson was a close second place with Riley Pickrell of Modern Adventure following Lonardi in for third, just ahead of Blikra in fourth.