Inexplicable Crash after Gravel Sprint Stage | Arctic Race of Norway 2025 Stage 2

Lanterne Rouge presents highlights of Arctic Race of Norway 2025 Stage 2.

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Credits:
Footage | Amaury Sport Organisation
Photos | Cor Vos (unless stated otherwise)

Some gravel segments, no one reacting on who I think might be the race favorite. And then a big crash in this sprint in the Arctic race of Norway. Stage two from Teneval to Soresa. Kind of sounds like a Portuguese place actually. But we have gravel today. Three gravel sectors uh including some sprints with more bonus seconds available at those sectors. A hard start too with some um hills, medium mountains, whatever you want to call them. Corbyn Strong, another good stage for him and his team. uh Riley Sheen as well. I mean he’s won Parour a gravel race in October when he was a I think a trainee or a stage. So this is a good stage for him but Israel patech would be quite defensive. They were just keen to set up a sprint. It’s really always going to be a sprint in the break where we had Bernett Bakas Inger Britson again as well as Martinsson. So the kind of break that the sprinters teams were happy with. Unoex and Israel Premier controlling as well as Q365 up there. Uh they got Peacock here. But to be honest, it’s not that hard to gravel. It’s uh it’s for maybe a versatile sprinter like Rick Plumbers. Um one of the, as I said, one of the breakout riders of this year on Tudtor Pro Cycling. But uh Cooper Reps all aren’t happy having one man in the breakway. They think they can get another across. It was at a minute 12 with 76ks to go. So pretty firmly under control. And so ass uh bridges across to his teammates. But uh we’re about to hit the gravel sectors. Everyone going back for some replenishments. The last p stops and then we hit the gravel. And let’s inspect it together. 2k long segment. Looks pretty good. Looks pretty fast to me. Uh no massive climbs in it. So it’s not like strata bianca. It’s tricky these sort of stages because there is gravel. Maybe someone attacks on the gravel, but the gravel is not actually going to be decisive to the stage result. It’s kind of it’s 2ks three times of mostly flat gravel. It’s not going to create massive gaps. I thought these were drones initially. They are in fact uh fighter jets. They visited the race today. But then you have a flat sprint on tarmac. So if you want to win that sprint or be there or for GC, you you want to have tires that are fast for that situation, not gravel tires. But if you don’t Yeah. If you run the risk of then puncturing on this gravel if you run normal road tires. I’m not an expert, but yeah, it’s different to like a proper strata bianca uh stage like we had in Jurro this year. But uh group repsol attack the breakaway. They try to get a group going. It does thin out, but Josh Bernett survives. The Kiwi and Israel Premate still have it under control. We’re going to do one more lap of the of the gravel sector. Uh but they they time it well. Maybe they didn’t want to have to sprint for the bonus seconds, but the breakaway is caught literally after the last uh sprint bonus gate. Stockman on unib rockets tries to anticipate the gravel sector. We’ve got these dippers uh these rollers going into that sector where the pelon yeah carries a lot of speed over the top and then one of the men who is the favorites for the GC in this race Kevin Vermark who’s done well at this race before number 31 on picnic post and l he attacks. No response from any of the other GC guys. No one there. I mean Q365 maybe thought they had it under control but he gets 12 15 seconds. I think he needed if he had two more guys with him maybe it makes a difference probably not the stage wasn’t that hard given the breakaway situation and so Unoex come with a million guys that then gets whittleled down pretty quickly though Lchnerson pulls off after they catch the mark with about 4ks to go and then Verses Tilla and Alexander Kristoff who’s sitting on 97 victories he wants he’s retiring at the end of this year he wants to finish with 100 victories um but the benefit for UNOX Pro Cycling is because it’s looking thin, you know, like Tilla comes up to the front, one lead out guy with a K to go. It’s looking thin. Arca go early. Tiller doesn’t panic cuz he’s not seeing like another if there was three guys to the Arca train, he should be panicking. But he just gradually moved over to that train. Got Aana there with Ballerini. Actually, they went for Case Bowl today in the sprint. That makes sense because Case Bowl probably is faster in a flat sprint. So, Ballerini leading him out. And so they profit off the ara a lead out fient bermans. But here unfortunately I there must be something on the road. I’ve replayed this 20 times. I can’t figure out what happens. I thought tiller just made a mistake. But actually also the Estana rider, the Israel rider behind him, they also move their wheels in an erratic way. Tiller looks like he moves his bike really erratically to avoid something on the road and then that creates a chain effect behind him. The balwaza rider has to pause and then the timma rider goes down and there’s a chain reaction. So big crash in the sprint. I don’t know if there was something on the road surface or just tiller yeah was being can’t ride his bike. Anyway, very unfortunate crash and here the stage is over. Right hand corner. 300 to go. 250 to go. Uh Tiller’s going to go through second wheel. Kristoff undercuts him. Kristoff’s going to kick out of this corner and have no one on his wheel. And and that’s that. Without Corbyn Strong on Kristoff’s wheel, without Case B being on his wheel, everyone’s left on a gap on this sprint. And Alexander Kristoff is able to take for the home crowds, much to their delight, a 98th professional victory. You can see the gap is really, really big out of this corner. It’s really is perfect from Unoex. This was obviously the plan. Have Till, you know, be undercut by Kristoff into that corner, drop the wheel, and then job done. Although Feldman takes another another good result here. He holds on to third in this sprint. Tom Vanasbrook it actually is for Israel Premier Techch in second who’s not bad in these sort of classicy sprint stages but Kristoff wins Vanasborg and Feldman who you know expor going to be looking to sign I would say Jules Hester Caseball Bemans Mar Goodman K and Pitcock. Here’s what Crystal had to say after the race. There was no way you were going to leave Norway on your final year as a pro without a victory. Yeah, I missed out in the tour of Norway in May. I just was second in my hometown on the last sprint. So, I came to Artic Grace. Uh yeah, the team didn’t pick me for the tour selections. I was a bit disappointed and uh I yeah, I showed today I uh have still good legs. So, uh I’m very happy to to win in my final race in Norway and I’m proud also it’s my 98 pro. So I still miss two 400 but uh at least uh to get a win here in Arctic means a lot because it’s a long time since I win in February. So uh it’s been a few second places but uh it’s not the same feeling like winning. Tell us how you did it because uh it didn’t happen on the gravel sector. It happened after. Great teamwork from UNOX as well. Yeah, we waited uh we want to wait till the last 5k. Uh problem is to get the climbers to the front. It’s hectic, you know. So I was screaming a bit on the radio on them but when they arrived they did an amazing job and uh yeah at the end also the way Rasmus do the last dec because we was lacking maybe one guy. Uh so it was a bit long for him but he I say take the draft from Ara he go a little bit in the draft and then he can hold all the way to the corner and then uh yeah out of the corner I got a good gap so I could just hold it to the finish line. You were not impacted by the crash. I heard it. I thought, okay, now a few guys is probably gone. But, uh, I couldn’t see it. No, as you said, 98 victories. You still have the possibility to get close to 100. Maybe not tomorrow, but the day after. Yeah, Trumo is a new chance. I did well in Trumso before and maybe the course actually is a bit easier. We do only laps, but the climb is maybe easier because before it came really close to the finish line. Now, it’s a bit longer to the finish. So, I will for sure try, but it’s also up and down all day. So if it goes hard from the beginning, it’s going to be a harder race again. So depend really how we race the race the pakur. Uh the race is made by the rider. So if you do it the easy way, I think I have a chance. If you do it the hard way, maybe it’s too tough. I hope you enjoy the video. Tomorrow is a 8minute uphill test. The GC should be decided there. Tom Pig, the bid favorite. Can he deliver? And I’ll see you with the recap then. Show chow show.