Tom Pidcock SURPRISED by Sprinter on Steep Climb | Arctic Race of Norway 2025 Stage 3

Lanterne Rouge presents highlights of rctic Race of Norway 2025 Stage 3.

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

Arctic race of Norway, stage three, the decisive stage for the general classification. 182 km from Hoy to Malv, an alpine village. We’ve got some caravans on the road near the finish, but it’s all about the last 3.7K, 7.8%. It’s like an 8 9m minute climb. Pretty difficult. Maybe even 10 minutes. There’s also some harder hills at the start, but the breakaway with Barkas, Veslham, Inger Britson was not that threatening. Once again, Q3 6.5 Pro Cycling were controlling with Frederick Frizz. No other team’s help, but also the break was always in check. Aan got Shampooa here as well. Scaroni, so two puncher options. Corbyman Strong’s in the leaders jersey. He’s a sprinter and yeah, he just did well at Tvolony. Two very hard final stages there, but and you look at the Palmy, the recent winners caught, you know, he’s a sort of versatile sprinter, but usually it goes to a puncher like a Ben Herman’s uh type guy. Could Corbin Strong really hang with Tom Pitcock on 3.5ks, 8%? H because yeah, Q365 look pretty confident. They’ve got VA here who’s good in these sort of oneweek races with low fatigue before a punchy V2 max effort. That’s how Harry won the tour of Guangji in 2023. Uh Veslam attacks other breakaway to go for the intermediate sprint. The rest of the break is caught with 17ks to go and sharp pro cycling. They who the [ __ ] are they going for? Dylan Turns has a mechanical at not the best time, a rear flat. He’s one of best options. Uh and we see the teams position themselves. I mean’s up there. He’s front row with his team. A starter on the left with Scaroni and Shampoo for the intermediate sprint. A starter go for it. Peacock just sort of followed and then didn’t didn’t contest it. Probably the wise thing to do. Then he has I think a has to have a nature break. So you’d think in in a Belgian classic in a in a Wani, which again Strong did last week. You you couldn’t be doing this sort of thing with 10ks to go. But these roads are wide. It’s not technical. It’s one corner before the climb. The corner is the size of a highway. Here we are. You can get 20 riders wide through it. Maybe not 20, but you know what I mean. It’s just not technical. Aana start to drive it there. That’s the last corner of the race pretty much. It’s just a huge sweeping road. And so it’s just a pure power test. It’s not been that hard a stage before and you know there’s fresh guys, fresh domestics that can make it really really hard. Pierre the Lour attacks I think at the bottom. Ballerini neutralizes that. Ballerini in very good shape actually this year. He was good in the classics. uh and then he crashed but otherwise he was really back in his top top level and he’s for a K for a K and a half he’s a bit of a tank you know he can actually drive a pretty good pace on a 7% gradient Milan VA who I just mentioned he’s going to try to make it hard for PCO I mean he the draft is still important they’re going 20k PH and PCO can’t go with 2 and a halfks to go so he needs someone to set him up because yeah Corman Strong’s not just going to drop off no pace Jacob have got three options they’ve got Havly who was very good in the Alula tour in his first racing on the road. The former mountain bike rider Eddie Dumbar who’s coming off uh Kur France crash preparing for the Welter and they also have Felix Angelhart who’s quite punchy. Corbyn Strong notices something here though. He notices Scarrone struggling. He notices he’s losing the wheel of Pigpock a bit and so Strong moves up, takes the wheel from him and I guess Strong is going to break this climb up into into segments. He’s not going to think, “Okay, I just need to average this total power to the finish because it levels off. You get a big draft with about 750 m to go.” He’s just uh going to try and respond as Dumbar pulls off to the Pitcock attack and then Pitcock, if he hasn’t dropped Strong, he will have to stop and slow down and then stay on the front. So, Strong is going to ride it that way. Bear in mind, he’s got 10 bonus seconds on Pitcock because he won the first stage. probably he would have taken some bonies in the second stage yesterday if the crash didn’t take him out and he might have been on 14 seconds but if he doesn’t get gapped and if he takes any bonus seconds even if wins he’ll still be in the leaders jersey so he’s on pure defense mode tomorrow is a really good stage for him and he’s got Schulz sheen vanas really good team VA pulls off group of about 10 or 12 scarrone struggling and it’s too early for pick to attack yes it’s steep but he doesn’t want to go with 1400 meters to go Nick Shaw Boltz takes over for Israel Premier Techch. He’s always good on these sort of 5 to 10 minute climbs in a oneweek race. And then Pig steps off. He’s trying to get separation. Vera drops the wheel as well as Jacos Scaroni tries to pace himself and Pock cannot shake Strong. Strong has one goal and it’s amazing how like Pik’s a small guy, right? Pick’s very aeroefficient. Strong is like so locked in. You can’t see him behind Pacock. I know Pickock’s out of the saddle, but Strong is climbing like Roglish. I went back and watched the uh 2020 Velter when Roglish dropped Carropaz on one of the uphill finishes, put about 10 seconds into him and he climbs out of the saddle in the drops but stays really really arrow and uh I think Strong Yeah, Strong must be in good shape. I mean Peacock is doing a good performance here. You see the gaps Peacock puts on the other. Scarrone is a really good puncher and so is Havly. So is all these other guys. Peacock let it out from over a K. Couldn’t shake Strong. And we’re thinking, okay, Strong’s now going to roll in for the sprint. And it looks like he’s coming up with 150 m to go. Probably Pik definitely Pock’s not going to put him on a gap. And here, oh, Strong’s going to take the stage win. He crumbles with the last little ramp. Pitcock very, very strong to the finish. He takes the stage win but he couldn’t put a second on the road into Corbyman Strong. So both I think did underrated performances here. Peacock winning ahead of Strong 12 seconds to scrone 16 to Champasa 17 to a mark. These are big gaps for this climb. Then Sha Englehart she had Hugo Hugo. Here’s what Peacock had to say after the race. Congratulations. This is what you uh you came for. Suppose you must be happy with with the legs. I mean yeah happy. And also, yeah, we wanted to try and yeah, get the jersey today, but Oh, Corbyn did a a pretty incredible climb for a sprinter. So, yeah, I think um still a big race on for tomorrow, but yeah, it’s going to be tricky. He’s a he’s a strong rider. He’s obviously going very well. So, but yeah, obviously going to be happy with stage. You you were looking for for for answers on on your condition as well. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I think uh it’s been a long training block. Long time since I’ve raced on the road. So, uh definitely feeling uh yeah, some freshness coming back after the long first part of the year. So, that’s uh also a nice feeling. Important to have a strong team around you during the entire day today. Yeah, I think uh you know, Fred did a a great job like 140 km on the front by himself. Uh no one wanted to help but uh yeah he did a great job and uh yeah team team team uh did great sort of supported me great on the last climb as well. So yeah thanks to them. Now it’s all in for tomorrow around Tomo and we know it’s going to be tricky depending on the conditions as well. It’s a circuit race with hills. Do you like the idea? Yeah. No, for sure it’s going to be uh a tough race tomorrow. Like I said Corbin’s got a strong team. is obviously going very well, so it’s going to be difficult, but yeah, let’s see what we can do. Israel Premier Techch in a really good position now, though, because they have three riders in the top nine, including the GC leader. They have the strongest overall team for the versatile sprint stage tomorrow. Can Pitcock beat well, he’s got to take six seconds on strong. There’s also intermediate sprints with bonus seconds where strong will definitely be faster. Israel with the numbers they can play in the brakes. Going to be tricky for Pigco. Hope you enjoy the video. I’ll see you with the recap tomorrow. Chowo chowo.