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Alberto Dainese (Team dsm-firmenich) won the opening stage and took the first leader’s jersey at the Arctic Race of Norway.
The Italian was boxed in with several hundred metres to go but patiently waited for an opening to launch his sprint, starting from several riders back, and then passed Noah Hobbs (Equipe continentale Groupama-FDJ) at the line to take the win in Alta. Clément Champoussin (Team Arkéa Samsic) sprinted to third place.
“It’s been a couple of months without racing after the Giro, but I’ve been training well. Today there was a bit of pressure, let’s say, one of the only sprinters from the WorldTour teams, so I had to deliver,” Dainese said.
“It was unfortunate that we lost Andreas Leknessund due to fever after he won the title last year. This morning when he said I must win for him, I did my best.
“All the guys rode well and the situation was not easy at the front; we were getting boxed in. In the sprint, I was around 15th position with 300m to go, so I thought it was not for the win, but when I found a space, I could pass the guys, and I’m happy to finish it off.”
Dainese now leads the race by four seconds over Hobbs as the race heads into stage 2 from Alta to Hammerfest on Friday.
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