2025 A R of Norway Ep4

get themselves just around this little corner so nobody gets trapped on an apex or otherwise here. Bit of straight road waiting for that. We’re past what should have been kilome zero. Not had to wait too much. In fact, we’re we’re all assembled at exactly that point. Well, how lucky are we? Here we go then. It’s been a blessing to be part of this great race and we’re going to go racing for the last time in this edition of the race. Here we go. Flagged off and underway. And almost immediately we are sprinting and it’s coffee that wanted to fall in. They’ve gone straight behind co rep soul of course who have storming. He’s in the mountains jersey. He’ll be trying to come up and join here. They’ll be trying to hoover up as well a few of those mountains points into Maria wanty just slot in as well. Does a tracky’s check under his armpit just to see who else is coming here without actually fully looking back. Got to keep your eyes going or the bike going straight line at the moment such as this picnic post and now also getting fully invested here as you can see team Flanders Belwis they want to be part of this as well it’s rock and roll at the very beginning a kipo kern farmer in the Aqua Green they want to play the game as well today ultimately for Paul Miguel but Unaliba will be there as well as a big driving force and three tried and three failed this is what’s going to happen there’ll be a washing machine effect as others have a bit of ambition and try and get themselves up the road. Unibet Titima Rockets will try. It should be Cedric Christopherson later on trying to support Abraham Stockman. We’ll see whether he can cope with the climbs and still they charge on and look back. They want more company. The ideal number would be around eight. That’s a proper team time triing unit. Sort of mirroring a full team of riders, if you will, in a time trial scenario to get themselves off the road, play with the climb once we get there. First time of asking by the way at the press vanet um will be after what 15 kilometers of racing. So when that ticker in the top left hand side of your screen says 120 uh kilometers to go. So 13ks before we get to that crest but not before we get to the foot of it. Everyone knows this and so they’re rolling with the punches right now. If you have ambitions for later in the day, it’s very useful to have a teammate up the road who’s prepared to sacrifice himself for you. he can drop back, drag you back up, give you some um impetus and I guess help arrow wise when we get to the climb and when we get to some of the fast stuff. And it’s going to come thick and fast. The laps are only 13 kilometers in length, don’t forget. And within each one, we’re going to have a climb and we’ve got three intermediate sprints along the way as well. Bonus seconds count for an awful lot here. There’s nine available. Three intermediate sprints. Three, two, and one bonus seconds for the first three line on three occasions. and 10 six and four at the finish as well. So 19 seconds just in bonuses today and if you look at the general classification that will drag an awful lot of people into a podium uh scenario don’t forget. So our leader is Corin Strong. He has a 6second advantage over Tom Pitcock. Christian Scaroni then sits at 23 seconds. Riley Sheeran at 31. Champan’s at 32 seconds. Half a minute just shy of is Kevin Vermarka. And then around 35 37 seconds a raft of other riders as well. So a gap plus bonuses could mean that they could be champions. It’s a long shot. I’ll give you that because there’ll be a lot of control that’s offered up indeed um in the service of Corbin Strong by a very strong team, Israel Premier Techch, but XDS Astana in particular who have possibly the entire team who could win today. If they can cohhere as a fighting force, Astonart will be brilliant today and they’ve got the manpower to break the heart of Corbyn strong potentially and Tom Pitcock possibly there will give it a go. Pitcock himself will try and go long as it is. Everyone’s neutralized each other at the moment. It’s been a high paced start to this day. There are some pinch points along the way mainly because this pelin for now seems to be almost as wide as it is long. And we kick again. Look at the pace. 47 km an hour on upfield ramp as well. 52 kks an hour. They are basically sprinting up the lumpy stuff at the moment. They want to get up the road. They need an escape. How are they going to find it? By being active at the very start. The waves just suggested by the wind here just gently lapping the the shore, but it indicates where the wind is blowing from. So, it’s a cross headwind as we start at the moment. It’s just fracturing off the front. Eight or 10 now going for it. a a band of brothers of maybe five just neutralized yet again. And this time it was Tito Rockets that that did that. TUDA of course hoping that Rick Plumemers will do something today. Florence Stalk possibly their better bet as a a long range attacker. They look back and it’s TUDA with one solo rider up the road and Q365 fold over. They want to come and join the fun as well. It is breathless as far as the start is concerned and no sign just yet of Uno X Mobility. They they’re about to put um that uh to one side at the moment, that thought because uh they’ve just neutralized this one as well. Keeping it all together just riding into the void here, doing nothing silly. Well, with Q365 uh now on the front, we’ve also got there with the white shoulders by the way, as you can see. Unex in here as well. TUDA likewise, picnic on the front. Here come XDS. They’ve got uh uh plenty of weapons in the locker, let’s put it that way, to do some real damage today. Whether they’ll be able to or not, we are going to have to wait and see. Uh but right now, they’re folding over each other still as we come to one of the more technical corners that we’re going to be dealing with. Uh don’t fret too much thinking where on earth the climb is. We haven’t dealt with it just yet, but we will be on it in about what 6 or 7 km time. It’s not the longest climb, but it certainly will be a wearing affair as we go deeper and deeper into today. It’s got some gnarly percentages to it as well. It’s 1.2 kilometers in length. 7 12% though is no laughing matter. And within that 7 12% it actually maxes out at about 10. So, um, no wind to speak of today, but the the, uh, gradients and indeed that incline will have an impact. Looks like we’re coming through what to me appears anyway to be a university quarter. Am I right or wrong? Yes, that’s totally right, Carton. This is the student houses on the left side. I recognize student houses having having billeted whenever you go to an event like an Olympic Games. Um they like to use the facility once the athletes have actually gone and when big events like uh grand tours arrive, they’re usually filled with journalists. Yes. So you have lived in some of them. Yes, I have. Uh some of them are more challenging than others. I I can tell you that much. Depends how they’re kept. Here we go then. This will be our Flam Rouge later on. Uh 1 kilometer to go. So, you get the idea. Um we’ve uh essentially today the uh the full lap is 135. It’s 13 km, but we’re doing a shorter sort of introduction lap uh right now. So, uh don’t worry too much about it. We will indeed have plenty of sight of our finale today. But look at them. They’re mobbed across the road. The neutral service cars are just coming through as we speak. First crossing of the line will be in about 100 meters time. So they’ve uh they are tanking through it as you can see. So this will be our first look at uh our start finish line essentially for the laps that will reveal itself. They’ve come into the hoarded sections and they’re the indented hoardings which tell you that’s 300 meters to go. I was a little bit ahead of myself there on the ticker but nonetheless there’s a slight rise to it. They come over that but basically this will be hell for leather when we come by. It’ll be a first look see here as they come to the line. The hornings are being beaten in welcome. They come past our commentary position. If I could lean out and give you a wave at home there and everyone looking at each other just keep it sensible. That’s the first lap without the climb. From now on in, we go climbing. So that’s your first look here at Trumza. Time to go racing. And you can check it out as well. All of a sudden, Intermar wanted just get very, very lively. They got a line of three here. Line of four in fact. That’s the slingshot up the road. But more than that, we got an intermediate sprint coming up rocking into our consciousness. In what, 700 meters time, almost immediately after we pass the uh the that start finish line, we will have an intermediate sprint. It’s set just beyond the sprint. But look at this pinch here. We’ve gone from a wide highway to suddenly quite a technical turn. Don’t crash yourselves into those barriers. We’ve already had that once today. Elbows flicking out like a dodgy dad dance. And here we go with Jacob wanting to get involved here. There are points up for grabs. Points means prizes. And the in the points competition, Israel Premier Techch still leading of course with Corbyn Strong, but there is a chance as well, not only for prize money, but also to make a bit of a statement. And look at this gnarly drag as well, banging straight through that and straight into um ascents here. And of course, when you have climbs, you have desents as well, which will accent the pace that these guys are able to generate as they come back in. And you can see just how lumpy this course is. Throw yourself at the line, why don’t you? They’re about 100 m away from uh indeed crossing that uh that uh that intermediate sprint. It’s a start finish for those who are hunting down points and in the frame here and wanting to get a few. Aren Gate and why not? There’s so many points up for grabs today. You could assemble a kind of a fighting force, but there’s Corbin Strong. He’s come up to join the party. He’s kind of neutralizing others. He wants Oh, he wants his friend who’s carrying the young riders jersey. That is Riley Sheen to come through. So the red shoulders here is Riley Sheen. He’s going to just chug past everybody here. It’s almost like a nod to him. Felix Angelhart is a big man who goes up mountains very well there in the plum colors. Uh is anyone going to trouble Riley Shear and it looks like Scaroni wants a bit of this. Scaroni could be a a good option for today in the light blue here. But Riley Sheen it is that comes across the line. I think they want to share some of the love out there. Riley’s on 15 points, so he’s going to get himself another three to go. So that will take him to 18 points and he could actually move up into at least the podium on indeed this uh points competition. There’s your sprint sprint announcement. And now just look at the way they’re bobbing and weaving and just stamping on the pedals right now. Just trying to get a bit of distance, set themselves some kind of rhythm to cope with this incline. That was the sprint that we’ve just been dealt with. We come up over the peak and then that’s not our big climb today by the way. No, no, that will come for the first time of asking in about 7 km time. But it’s like a roller coaster ride this hands up in the air like you just don’t care. No, keep them on the bars for goodness sake because we’re going to come back down towards the water and then we’re going to go climbing again up to what is renowned here as the Central Park. We’re up we’re heading up the P Barrett. It’s gorgeous. Yes, it’s very beautiful. It’s nice. Here we go then. A little bit of traffic management there. Um it’s the same in every single city uh in within Europe of course just traffic calming devices. And we’ve got a flyer here and it’s it’s coming in from Coffidus sailing through and of course the keep of Karn Farmer. They want Pal Miguel to have some interest today. That’s not him. That’s a teammate. Haven’t got a handle on who it is just yet, but they’re all looking at each other. So Kern Farmer are here. Coffeus will be working ultimately for Dylan Turns, I think. But Stefano Aldi probably a better bet. The sprinter within their team. They’ve got a margin. Have we got some settlement? Two up the road is not enough at a moment such as this. It offers up an opportunity and arc B&B hotels want to get involved. It’s um me Nova from Coffeidis here. Good GC man. Um I would say that he’s actually a bit of a a danger to be fair because he’s got a bit of a time triing Palm Marz about him as well. Um yeah, he can TT decent climber, good on the hills, not got much of a kick about him, I’m afraid, but kind of drifted over there. Uh so, so Moba is there. Uriati as the camera bike just found one of those traffic calming lumps that some of these guys will try and bunny hop over. I’ll be sure you’ll see them just going for it. There they do just trying to smooth out the road. Good to put those in your head as well, particularly when it gets very busy a little bit later on. 4 seconds is the margin into Mari wanting want to come over and join the fun. There might be a satellite rider posted up there by Q365. They’re trying to get engaged as well. But as it stands, it’s been a lively start. Sebastian, have you enjoyed it so far? Yes, I love it. It’s new. It’s beautiful to see the people alongside the route and all that. And Trum is beautiful today and it’s very intense. I think we might have got a little bit of a bruise there. Certainly, we’ve got a uh a bit of a snap within the pelatin. We’ll have a look in a moment if the if the Yes, it is. There it is. Oh my goodness. We had a gap. It had to be described. And here it is. I’m afraid Vader is there. Poor old Darth has has been bitten. There’s a few others as well. And that’s not good news. That’s Pal Miguel himself. He’s the main choice for Ikipo Kern Farmer. And he has been hobbled. Also here is Erna Kristoff. Felix uh also tasting the aspelt I’m afraid. Not nice. Well, that’s the way of it when it’s so busy when the real estate is at a primary in a moment such as this. Too many riders there. Touch your wheels. You go down, collect other people. Nightmare. Well, for some of them anyway. For these guys and the camera bike himself. Goodness me, that sounded like a challenged gentleman’s area. Let’s put it that way. Uh the cameraman probably going to be singing alto tonight. You can imagine he hit that quite hard. Meanwhile, 5 seconds is the gap. 124 to go. Three almost accidentally find themselves off the front and they’re looking at each other saying, “Well, no, you do some work. No, you do some work. Got to get on with it.” And of course, the man who’s here up the road for a keep farmer is saying, “Well, my main man has just been compromised. You know, it’s part of the battle plan, unfortunately. Diego Uliate is now thinking, “Well, what do I do?” Well, the answer is, Diego is go for it yourself. He’s a sprinter who can climb. I mean, he’s a great guy to have up there. He probably would have been a a default selection as well within that group in the absence of Paul Miguel. Sto’s probably going to have a word to say about that, but he finds himself kind of vaguely out of position right now. Bridging over is Andreas Lechnund himself, and this will snake back together. A shame for those who’ve taken a tumble. I hope Paul Miguel is okay. Uh haven’t had a condition report visually upon him. Uh we can just keep our fingers crossed. It’s been a rough old start today, Sebastian. Yes, it’s been very intense and it’s did not look good with the touch on the touch to touch with the wheels. So, I hope they are fine. I do too. Uh here we go. We’ve got uh a a band here that’s too big to to thrive. I’m afraid there’s too many teams involved. Everyone’s going to say, “Well, I’m not working. I’m not working. I’m not working. I’m working for somebody else. And so when you have this group that’s too big, there’s always an excuse. Well, taking the excuse is Andreas Lechnesent. With him pushing on at this point with 123 km to go, that says to me he’s not the choice for the day for that team, but he quite liked to cross the start finish line quite frankly. Wearing the Norwegian Champions jersey, he flicks the elbow out saying, “Come on, come through.” The rider just on his wheel here is Case Bowl. Actually, that’s a ve very, very strong pairing. Case nobody’s full. Sort of looking around saying, “It’s too big, mate. Can’t do this. It’s too big. It’s not going to make it’s not going to make it.” I’m actually uh verbalizing the the speech bubbles that these guys aren’t using. Imagine a comic. It’s my job. Uh here we go. Oh, yeah. Caseball doesn’t Well, he’s having a chat. Look, you can see him in the pale blue here. He’s talking to anyone who wants to listen. I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it. If you want to do it, I’ll do it and I’ll ride with you, but I’m not doing it. This is clever stuff. He’s basically playing a strategy here, saying trying to tempt other people. He’s he’s he’s busy saying with an excuse, I’m working for Ballerini. This is not me. Imagine this is just a positional thing. But all of a sudden, it’s snapped back to the pelin case. If he suddenly starts riding, it’s because his team have said to him, “Okay, you can do it. We we we’ve had to rip up the strategy and go again. And Picnic know this. So, they’re pushing on here. They’re trying to tempt these guys uh to actually follow on. And if they take the bait, this is going to blow the race apart. How fantastic is this? This is a full-on spin to get up the road. And it’s not catch me if if you can, it’s join me if you want to. Let’s wait and see. So, that’s the offer on the table for these guys who are basically playing poker with each other. They could actually lose out entirely and get absorbed by their palatin. Others could go up the road, but team picnic postell want to be up there and at the moment they are modest margins I’ll grant you. But this is fantastic. Great racing. We’ve had Lechnesund me. We have case B. We have Luca Vanovven Uriat. um almost the uh the the the the least uh enthusiastic person who’s at the front who’s actually been busy but now knows he’s got to go and help Pig Miguel potentially and there he is. There’s two now from Kern Farmer who are up here. Still waiting to find out about Po Miguel. Um we are on our climb and a beautiful climb it is as well. Once we settle down just a little bit, we’ll hear an awful lot more of it. We can see it’s almost Parkland. I I don’t know whether sheep and goats are used here to trim down the grass or whether it’s just people with lawn mowers and it grows quite slowly here because the sun is so short. Tell me it the summer is short indeed and we uh cut it with the grass and the municipality of Trumsa is very good. In the winter it’s crazy with snow and they work like heroes to take all the snow and in the summer they cut down but the season of course is short. And now we’re one of we are in one of the most famous hills carton in Tumsa. And when you me and you go bicycling there, we feel it in our whole body. It’s terrible. Well, these guys are doing it at a race pace. There is our leader Corbyn Strong keeping it absolutely sensible. And in fact, they’ve driven into the back of this group as you can see. We just uh in fact even our soul breaker has decided that maybe it just wasn’t worth the candle. So, race radio declaring it is all together. Say for those who’ve taken a a tumble and there it is. Um, Chian it was that took the three bonus seconds ahead of Skori and Felix Angelhart. Come on Felix, you’re a big man. You go up mountains like your breeze blocks do not. Uh, yeah, he’s got a kick on him at the end. He’s a he’s a good outside selection for you today. Meanwhile, into Maria Wanty desperate to get something out of this race. They come here with a very good sprint leadout train. We saw Dion Smith. He looked extremely lively a little bit earlier on as and yet again picnic personnel. Don’t want to miss out. Um is that Eddie Dumbar? It’s kind of his sort of style at the moment. That would be a surprise to me, but I don’t know why I would be surprised uh for Jacob Alula in the plum colors here. Still having a dig. It’s a threeman push right now and the temptation still stands there for everybody else. And you can see just how tough this climb is. Bottom right hand side of your screen displays the percentage that we’re dealing with hitting eight now. It will nudge to 10. Uh but not on overly long sections. So it’s evened out over 100 meters. But you can see the way that just falls away to the uh the background scenery behind us. And still they push on. Uh this will be two from Picnic Post if they get there. Uh, our summit has just been crested unless there was a distance marker there. So, that’s our KM and the K the king of the mountains points. This jersey is still one of the most wide open because of the amount of climbs that we’ve got today. There we go. Um, 321 bonus seconds at every single uh uh uh crest that we have here. are just folding over and shoot proving that Yuno X want to be part of the day is and the halter Ha who’s gone for it right now and he’s got company and decent company with it Florian Stalk is there so even now some of the GC men the the general classification players are showing their hand it’s fascinating stuff over the top we come uh our first King of the Mountains points have been awarded no sign of the King of the Mountains jersey almost even Stevens they may well get involved a little bit later on, but I think he’s been too busy so far for a breakaway really to establish itself, but Lnesund uh really wants to be part of our thoughts today. And he’s gone again. As I said, he’s must be tired and I believe he is tired after the tour to France. So, he’s come into this race slightly fatigued. If he’s going to do anything, it’s cross the uh the start finish line in a good position so he can show off the Norwegian flag to the great people of Trumsa who have come out in their hundreds and thousands around the course to just enjoy the day. Possibly hundreds I think hundreds and thousands that would be more than the population of Trumsa but by enthusiasm is possibly getting the better of me. Yes. And I totally agree and the analyst carton and you know Andreas is our local guy. He’s from Trumsa. Everyone who grew up in Trumsa with him used to see him bicycling and he actually used to be a very poor skier. I can say that because he says says that himself and then because of the Arctic race he wanted to proceed bicycling. So we are very happy to have him at in our home city at at his home city in this race. Fantastic. Rot it was that took the three points at the top ahead of Dong and Depto. None of those have set any points in the King of the Mountains competition cuz it’s mainly been breakaways that have had those points. So, um that’s a modest campaign, I think. But there are so many climbs here, eight in fact. So, there’s 24 points up for grabs. If Roto wants uh to be in the King of the Mountains jersey, if he wins every single one of the climbs, highly unlikely, but if he does, he will be level on points with Storm uh with Storm Ingabrien, which means that if he beats Inger Briggsen at the line, he will take the King of the Mountain. A long shot, I realize. Here we come. Roads dampening up just a little bit. We do have rain, so it’s going to be a damp course. So, watch out. Particularly on smoother asfelt. Uh some of this is quite a heavy road surface designed that way for grip to vehicles, etc. once they uh once they actually get uh uh to use these roads, once the snow has actually gone. So, it’s quite a heavy surface, designed that way to have good grip, but it’s cut at the uh at the side of the road. You often see that you can get if you cut a corner, you’re going to get a pinch puncture. Um there’s uh the roads are very clean here. So there’s usually swept of gravel. So you not got that as a problem. But when you have an off camber corner and it’s wet and perhaps uh sometimes a storm drain getting involved or maybe a painted road surface like a pedestrian crossing, that can be a nightmare. So we kick on here. 5 seconds now is uh the gap back to the yellow jersey. But there’s a long string of riders that that are hoping to land a big fish today. And that’s the prize at the end of the day, of course, is 50 kilos of uh of smoke of smoked salmon. Um I don’t think you have to have it smoked. You can have whatever salmon you want. Um but u yes, our um our sponsors, our salmon sponsors have done a fabulous job uh during this race to actually provide um part of the prize money. Yes, it’s a cool nice Norwegian prize. Cton from Husam and from Carton. Love it. Uh in fact they gave a 100 kilos away yesterday because it was the home race um of indeed our sponsor. Absolutely. Absolutely love what they’re doing. BR Carlson, isn’t it? Yes, that’s right. Is the company. So yeah, here we go. Are we settling down now? Is everybody just thinking, look, this is a bit too much. Can we just uh have a sense of calm? There’s too many teams that are involved and enthused enough to get up the road. And as a result, there’s still a lot of looking over shoulders and there’ll be some within this group that those at the front don’t want here because it neutralizes their chances of being allowed to get up the road and in a break. No settlement at all with 116 km to go. So 10 followed by four followed by what looks like a group that contains the uh the golden jersey and Corbin Strong and it does and team reps go again. Part of their job today is to make sure that Ingger Briggsen takes the King of the Mountains jersey. So they will want to be up in the break if Inger Briggsen’s a bit tired. And I imagine he is cuz he’s been in the break most days. So they will try and hoover up points themselves as a team to prevent others getting those points and challenging him for the jersey. It’s complicated stuff. Yes, it is. I learn a lot from you, Cotton, being here. I love it. So they come by this screen of trees. Hands up if you’ve got a puncture. And I’m afraid that this man has a well well he’s in hell at the moment. Um they have a look around at each other. See why I do that? Uh they have a look around at each other. They still don’t want to do it all on their own and I’m not surprised. This is a tough course. Yes, it’s very tough and eight laps all around the hills. It’s ups and downs and it can happen a lot you know accidents but also with the sprints and the points. So, it’s um it’s a tough last day. Well, with the weather factored in as well and as you can see the head of the Viper here with a long tongue and we’re coming back down to water site. We’re having some that’s dropping upon us from the skies. It’s Miculus, the Lithuanian champion who’s just coming to the road to to the four right now. Has a look around. See who’s here. Um he’s not about time trial himself. That’s um the ability to time trial is parking pain. Um putting it somewhere else, thinking about ignoring the pain. Um and uh a very good quality on a day like today potentially if this intensity continues. Um despite the climb and there’s lots of that uh the climbing I should say because we even climb up the sprint, don’t we? Um the sprint is on one peak rather unkindly to the sprinters. Uh but it does open up opportunities to move around overall if you’re hoovering up those bonus seconds as well as indeed the points competition getting lively once more and into Mari still up for the battle. They go for it with the uh um the daylow shoulder looks like a a laundry incident with a highlight pen. Um they push on here. Everyone else settles in. can’t uh kind of clearly displaying the fact that this is not a rider I particularly want to go up the road with. It’s a balancing act because you have to pick somebody who’s strong enough but you believe you can beat. That’s the idea. You’d like a big group of people who are who are good but not as good as you. And uh so you see riders kind of looking around thinking, “Nah, he’s going nowhere. He’s not strong enough.” Or, “Nah, he’s too strong. I’m not going with him. He’ll beat me.” So yeah, there’s a there’s like a bagel that goes on here and they all they want to pull out the tickets, have a look at them and think, “Nah, put it back in. Let’s see what let’s see what we pop up with next time.” So it can take a long time to get yourself established in the breakaway. Yes. And it’s a lot of tactics, Carton. When I listen to you and when I see the tour to France and the Arctic Race, I I’m always astonished by the tactics. Oh, it’s absolutely constant. Every team has a battle plan at the beginning of the day. They all sit around the breakfast table and say, “Right, you’re doing this, you’re doing that, you’re doing this, and then the race starts and you may as well just tear it up.” So, it can change rapidly and like that. Yes, exactly. Or indeed, it can come off. In fact, the battle plan for uh um Kristoff when he won on Friday was delivered absolutely impeccably. This is an attempt at a barrier that’s going on at the front and the principal teams. You can see Estana are there. We’ve also got Picnic Post Enel. Some of these teams who are trying to stop others coming past have a rider up the road. Some of them are quite happy with what’s gone up gone up the road and just don’t want any more action for a little while. And there are others trying to burst through trying to come through on the barriers. Uh they’re trying to lock it down. And here we go. There that’s Unibet suddenly make a breakout. And then of course the dam bursts once again and they come by the start finish line and we go round again. Seven laps remaining. They’ve failed to to form the barrier here. So, it’s fractured again. And we’re rocking and rolling today. What a finale we’ve got here in TA. This is fabulous. Yes, it’s fabulous to have you here and we love it. The race is good and it’s intense as I said. Amazing. Just every single time we uh we come around, it doesn’t matter um where the point within the course as well. We’ve got so many attack points that are still at our behest. This looks like it’s firming up, however, I’ve got to tell you, because there’s fatigue in the pelatin right now. Everyone thinking, “We’re supposed to be getting together as a team, saving some energy, and then going for the sprint at the end of the day. Will all those of you who want to be in the breakaway, please get on with it? Then we can have a bit of a break.” It hasn’t happened. You can see the lack of enthusiasm behind by some of the riders who are just trying to almost act as a magnet and pull back those who want to join the front of the race. But it’s still going on and this is fabulous. I’m I’m I’m loving it today. Let’s have a look. Two, four, six, eight. Uh who do we appreciate? These guys. Um it’s a song. Not a great one. Possibly could win Eurovvision. Uh but not if it comes from the United Kingdom because we never get voted for these days. We’re being punished. I can understand. Anyway, 111.7 kilometers from home and they really are rocking and rolling. That to me looked like Pierre Lour was uh was finally waking up for this race. He shed time a lot during it. Let’s see if it is indeed him as uh I tell you what, everyone looks like they’re like a spananiel with its head out of the window on a motorway uh with a tongue hanging out. very excited but not uh but but but not uh getting anywhere quickly at the moment. Let’s have a look. Um there’s been a reconfiguration. There’s too many in this group. It’s swollen to about 20 in very short order and possibly quite a few more and the pelatin has reached out and I’m afraid has um put that particular fire out and still it rolls on right now. This is great. Uh Jonas Haynes is the man in the yellow and blue here. And still they can’t settle and they look behind um Bjorn Kurt. I believe this is uh the man from uh leads um for team picnic doing a super job. He’s been active since the very start. In fact, the battle plan clearly by his team was in fact it’s Ryan G I believe. But we’ll get a get a um confirmation on that for you in a short while. He’s taken the breakfast instructions very literally. Um he’s actually going backwards at the moment. I think they’ve called it back saying, “Look, you’ve done too much. Let’s swap personnel out front.” Uh and that’s what we’re seeing right now. And Unux put a blanket on everything and said, “Look, calm yourselves down.” This is Unux at the front now, which actually breaks the heart of those who would try and be in the breakaway because it’s a mess. So this is like a holding pattern at the moment. But Unux have almost accidentally found themselves off the front with two riders here and that’s a danger to everybody if they’ve got two up front and they’ve got company. Then there’s going to be some negotiations about work rates going on here and they might make this stick. Let’s have a look. Uno X at the moment one and eight in this gang of what 13 that we’re looking at right now. There or thereabouts. I’m doing like buffalo counting um out in the Wild West. It’s impossible to mark them all up, but uh we’ll get there in the end. See what you get here. 10.3 uh 110.3 kilometers to go on a little downhill section. Uh again, we’ve dealt with the climb. This is peaky. Uh we will be climbing again. Uh uh we dealt with that intermediate sprint which itself is on a climb. That’s the descent onto a plateau. We have another little couple of kickers before we actually take the big descent back down into town and then we of course are climbing once again. I say back down into town. Um what we’re seeing here is the town is quite big. Yes, it’s quite big. It used to be very small. When my grandfather grew up uh like 80 years ago, you knew everyone and now it’s 80,000 inhabitants. As I said, it’s 140 nationalities. We have business life, we have the university, we have a lot of tourisms from Asia, from the Arabic countries. So, it’s very vibrant and it’s changed very much in just like 20, 50 years. It’s interesting what you say. Um, a friend of mine in Saudi Arabia, he said uh um he said, “I’m going to Norway.” He said, “It’s it’s really cool.” I said, “Yeah, it is.” Me think he meant the vibe. And uh he said, “No, it’s uh I just love going there because it’s like the the whole country is is air conditioned.” Yes. It’s cool and people are cool and you know it’s very safe. Colton Yes, exactly. Um and uh secure. It’s It’s very nice to be able to sort of walk out of the commentary position and not worry about uh anything my my computer or anything else being left behind. I know I know it’s going to be here. It’s that open door policy of the neighbors, isn’t it? Yes, it I grew up like that and I won’t steal any of your phones or anything. Thank you very much. A lot of kit here. Uh 108.8 kilometers to go. We’ve got a 6second margin only. It’s nothing to speak of uh for now. Back to the yellow jersey and it’s a sense of calm because of the constant um nature of today. Um it’s not quite as explosive now because everyone else is getting everyone’s getting a little bit fatigued. It’s not going to be long before some riders are going to need a comfort break. Because one thing you do before a race begins is you hydrate like crazy, expecting a break to go up the road and then you can it saves you having to take drinks during the day. So you put as much liquid um as is comfortable um so that you’re not thinking about thirst. Then you can get on with the job, but all that fluid has to go somewhere. So you’ll see riders taking a comfort break, putting the ballast where it needs to be in the in the bushes. Um, and then they’ll be getting back on. Oh, goodness me. That uh that camera bike as we have an homage to the race here. Um, what would you describe? Is this scientific outfits or is this um from the fish factory? I’m not quite sure, Colton. But it was some beautiful Norwegian ladies from the northern part dancing perhaps. Exactly. But I I’ve got a feeling that it’s actually uh from the fish filleting factory. But um but who knows? I can only guess and we’re both in the same boat as far as that that’s concerned. But anyway, thank you very much for the uh Hokei Koke. I believe it was that was Larry La was the man who uh first penned the Hokei Kokei. It was it was his song. Uh yes. Um he was uh there’s a joke about this that I don’t think I can tell on television, but I shall tell you. Tell me afterwards. I will. Yes. Uh 107.6 6 kilometers uh to go to go and 7 seconds is the gap. People are now writing in on social media saying please tell us the Larry Lope. All right. When Larry L passed away um they had him laid out in the funeral parlor and they decided to introduce him to the coffin of course and they put the left leg in and that’s when all hell broke loose. If you know the song you know what I’m talking about. Yes, I know. I know. a bit British joke, but but I I love your cotton, so it’s good. It’s okay. They put the left leg in. The left leg out. Yeah. Anyway, that’s what it’s all about. Uh, poor old Lar, please. You had a good life. Uh, courtesy of that song, the hokeie koke. And we got a dance going on at the moment. And for some ambitions, it’s a down dance of death potentially because it’s been fullon. If you’re hoping to keep something back for the rest of the day, looks like people are reasonably happy. I can’t see any more satellite riders pinging off up the front. Enough of the big teams are involved. That’s the crucial thing. Uh as you can see, Unox are here. Uh they of course ultimately working for for Kristoff. We have as well within this group, we have team Flanders Belwis. They will be working ultimately for Jules Hers. So they’re happy they’ve got a rider up the road. We have Kern Farmer who will be working in in the green here in third wheel. Uh they’ll be working for Paul Miguel if he’s okay and he’s back up off his off the deck took a tumble a little bit later a little bit earlier on. We have um team total energies Yoris Delbbo. Yes. Or Jason Tesson at the end of today. They’ve got a man in the break as well. Jacob are here. They of course will be thinking about Felix Angelhart unless it’s Angelhart himself. I don’t think it is. Although he was lively early on. Um if it is Englehart that’s a big big roll of the dice I’ve got to tell you. Um so yes these teams very very well some of the principal teams very well represented up front which means that they will the bigger teams won’t chase on cuz they’ve implanted somebody within the breakaway. So we’ve got a gap of 19 seconds and that will grow. Who’s going to be brave enough to chase it? They’re using the camera bike there as an aer foil there which is why it looked like they nearly crashed into it was deliberate. They get a hole in the air punched by the camera bike. They out into it and it gives them a slingshot, an arrow slingshot. You can use whatever you like out there, provided it’s not holding on to somebody else or indeed holding on to the car. So, they’ll take those little moments, little bit of assist to a little bit of arrow, and they’ll drive themselves into this scenario. And this looks handy. I’ve got to tell you, it’s Jonas Hannes. Now of of all of these guys as a potential winner at the end of the day, we have Case B from Astana and we have Hannes as well who’s also made the trip here. That’s two very strong riders that if they if they’re not listening to me there, the rest of the teams, they have a great chance here of actually delivering something very very special by the end of the day. They got to work together. They will do this. Uh some will be less enthusiastic about this uh this job that they’ve got uh than others. That’s case B for Astra. Very strong sprinter who who can climb and that’s the nature of what you’re looking for here. They’ve got Diego Uriati as well. He is a good GC man and he’s part of that gang. And this is causing worry for some of the teams finally. They’ve realized what the composition of the breakaway is and they’re starting to think to themselves, hang on a minute, I’ve got to answer to management at the end of the day because I’m not there. Uno X is there. This is Lchnerson coming up to the front. He’s not chasing, he’s disrupting. Uh so he’s holding the pace back. You get in front of a rider, you just ease off a little bit. He’s actually making sure this gap sticks. It’s the same for the Aston team because they have got Is it Bal? It’s not Ballerini. Well, if that’s Ballerini and not Case B, either way, one or other, I think it’s Case B, but we’ll we’ll we’ll get to confirmation of that in a few moments time. Shmod Verses and Udriati. Urati good. And the team that have missed out and how much work did they put in earlier on team picnic post NL thinking we’ve missed this. They’ve been in the radio. The the director sportify has said what’s going on fellas get your backsides up the road or else. I was absolutely right. It’s not Ballerini. Uh so um but nonetheless either or on a day like today. I thought would be the uh the better rider better choice for a day like today and indeed it has proven to be. I’ll just double check my uh my start list to make sure that uh indeed that is accurate in a few moments time. But uh but yes, what a fighting force we have here. Uh yeah, Hport is number 23. It is him uh from uh Astonai. Slightly bigger rider as well. So well set for a day like this. 26 of them. And uh check this out. Um they’ve got company. That was a big old push. I’ve got to say by Picnic Post. If you’re going to make it, it was now. And they’ve done it. Uh the man who was working so hard out there was Ryan Hal. I think he’s made it in here. There he is with the orange stripe down his back. Congratulations to him. Might even give him a little round of applause, I think. There you go. That’s from us because that was outstanding. Uh bringing over with him somebody from Liilahhammer CK continental. Now, if the Lihammer CK continental man is Martinsson, Yur Martinsson, I’ll wait to see. I’m not overly familiar with his riding style, but it’s Uriati. No, no, that’s that’s from Kurt Farmer. I want to know who the man is. The rider here is from uh Lihammer CK continental. I like the CK in the middle of this. I’m not a sponsor. I did give one of the riders a banana. So, I guess you could say I’m a sponsor. I’d like to think I’ve played my part. Uh 20 29 seconds now. It looks like it’s settled. That was a very clever thing to get. There’s Storm Ingabson, our King of the Mountains man. Uh the midnight uh sorry the Northern Lights jersey is the Mountains jersey here. Rather unfortunately has a dirty great big trade sticker all across it. Um those trade stickers to my mind should be a little bit less because that’s a beautiful jersey. And if you’d like one uh if you go to the Arctic Race of Norway website you can actually buy one. There you are. Uh they also sell them in the shops here in Tumsa. I can tell you. Um I had a look myself. They didn’t have my size, which is the only reason I didn’t invest, but I suggest you strongly do. So, here we go. It’s It’s one of their sprinters. Now, he’s usually a leadout man for uh for Holad, but he’s here um and doing a good job of it of being here as well. It’s your observatory. It’s the Arctic University of Norway as well. And there’s an open air theater. I could do my standup show here. Yes. And when I started at the university and next week on this Monday when the students starts, they will have a big open uh assembly at the beginning of the semester. And so this is our university and it has perhaps been called the most important thing uh when it comes to developing the north to have a university so far north in the northern part of Norway and in the whole world to have a university like that. Fantastic. Um what is principally it famous for? Is it uh is it engineering? Is it mathematics? Is it a whole raft of different things? It’s famous for health of course the science chemistry and science but also of course when it comes to ocean development and science on when it comes to the Arctic environmental questions. We have some ships that the university owns that goes to the northern pole and to take measurements from the ice that is melting. So it’s very famous when it comes to ocean and environmental science. Uh look at the duty that’s been taken here on the front of the pelaton and it is well Israel Premier Tech. Um and that’s because of Corbyn Strong the race leader. So, the men with the uh the single white uh sleeves are up to the front and they are now managing the race. They’ve basically said, “Okay, finally we’ve got ourselves a breakaway. We’re reasonably happy with it, but we don’t want anything silly happening because there’s some very strong riders up the road.” So, they’re going to moderate the gap here and let’s see how it settles down. This is a beautiful bridge, I’ve got to say. Yes, it’s beautiful. And I actually grew up on Carla, the other island. And it’s one of Norway’s biggest island. Do you miss the boats? Yes. I mean, no, I don’t miss my the boats. My grandfather has used the boat, but not me, Carlton. And then it it combines Qualia to the main island Tum where we are sitting now. And the race is going on. The race is absolutely kicked off and our breakaway as it stands. Ha is uh is up the road. Um a man who could actually take the day uh for Yuno X. He’s capable of doing it. whether they’re still going to bid for Alexander Kristoff a little bit later on. He’s a great rider to have up there if Kristoff needs some help in the climbs a little bit later. The gap’s gone up to nearly 40 seconds. Um it is Case Bo from XDS Astana who is also there. Uh Bjon Kurt uh is the man who made the trip the uh sprinter interchanging with Kevin Vermont who uh that’s a good man to have up the road as well as uh and the uh decides to just Did you notice that he he wanted a drink but the first drink he took he just uh spat out and the reason for that is when the road is wet you get pickup from the road and it goes onto the nozzle and so you don’t want to swallow that because it might have a a little bit of dirt in there. So, you either squirt on the road or sometimes squirt into your mouth and spit it out before you take your drink, which was uh clever stuff. That was uh that was why indeed he did that. Homos comes through, another very strong rider from Jacob. Um Yiannis Haynes from uh team Flanders Belwis. This is a fighting force that has just gone off up the road. And to my mind, and I say this quietly, we could see our day’s winner come from this group, in which case we’ll see a skirmish amongst the favorites. So, we’ll have a race within a race potentially. There’s 100 kilometers to go, just shy of. They’ve only got a minute. But if this goes up to two or three minutes, they can hold that. And then if any stragglers fall off the back, they get gated because there’s a danger of them being caught on the circuit. So they’re off you go, go and get an early shower and then you’re out. Yep. Yes. If you’re caught by uh if the brake essentially give the get themselves so much of an advantage. I mean it would be a strange thing on a a circuit of this length which is 13 km for that to happen. But on tighter courses that you get sometimes in uh let’s say in other cooler places uh like let’s say in Canada, Montreal or Quebec, uh quite often uh they get caught so they’re asked to leave the race because they’ve basically been caught. Um so uh so yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen today. Bit of a reassembly. We’ve got Felix Orin Kristoff from Interario who’s just got himself back in. He had a puncture earlier on. There’s a few that have been on the deck but thankfully rode on. Nobody has stepped off the bike. So, Case Ball uh is up the road, which is uh which is great to see. He’s a he’s a good rider actually, especially in a circumstance such as this. Uh Bjorn Kurt has made the trip for Picnic Post NL. Shel Mursa um is also their great rider, the the big Dane for Jacob Alula. We have Matthew Verer who sounds like the the most expensive man in the world if you speak French um and English and you mash it up very share being expensive there is sounds like very but anyway listen I’m having fun even if you’re not both me and Sebastian are enjoying themselves uh we have Yonas Kes um again somebody else who’s uh very very uh lively in this kind of scenario. Uriati good sprinter can go up lumps and bumps and number 176 um which is uh fet he’s the dark horse here but that counts for a lot in this kind of scenario. So it’s eight riders I think I said at the beginning the ideal number for a team time triing unit is eight riders. How many have we got? How many riders? We’ve got eight. we get at it. So, now it’s getting there. Super balanced team. If they all work, and it looks like they’re all working, this gap could go to 3 minutes. And if it gets there, then we’re going to have a race within a race, which is basically um they will survive attacks because there’s enough strength here for you to get a rest and then take your turn. So, they are exchanging beautifully here. Teams used to be of eight riders. They actually reduced it down to to seven in some of the grand tours. Um so yeah, this is uh this has got a balance about it that team time triing units would be used to. So you you roll through as you can see it’s going clockwise at the moment because of uh the the wind direction they’ve got and how they’ve decided to settle it down. So you come to the front, you do your turn and then you you drop back. If you short turn, it means you drop off the back and somebody has to slot in in front of you. So you’re basically either tiring or you’re saying to them, I’m working for somebody else. So at the moment, nobody’s doing that. They’re all doing their job. And so there’s a holding pattern that’s now developed. This suits Corbyn Strong perfectly because nobody up the road is uh is is is more than 56 seconds in obeyance. And that’s Runa Halter. If Halter, he’s the virtual leader of the race at the moment. And so Israel premitech are going to hold them at that margin and make sure that there’s no threat to Corin Strong. And then that will allow Corbyn Strong later on to just watch out uh for Tom Pitcock who might try and steal six seconds if he can. But all the sprint bonuses are going to go to these guys if it stays like this to the line and then you’ll have a battle as Corin Strong comes under pressure late on. So his team at the moment think this is great. We’ll hold the margin. We’ll make sure that uh by the end the gap is less than 56 seconds. That’s one scenario. Lots of other things could change, but that’s what Israel Pentech are happy with at the moment. So, they’re looking at this breakaway group and thinking, “Thank you very much. You take all the mountains points. You take all the intermediate points. You’re not going to threaten the points jersey. You’re not going to threaten um the overall classification. You can have your fun with the stage race and we’ll just win the race. from behind. Yes, they they leave themselves behind and then they attack it when until the finish just to close that gap. Don’t forget the runa uh uh Now tell me how to pronounce his first name cuz I would call him Erd, but it’s probably not that. Almost gotten it. It’s Odna. I was close. Yes, we were close. No, not too bad. Odna Ha is up the road and as you can see the white sleeves here of Israel Premier Tech are doing their job. the golden jersey uh on the back of um Corbin Strong is tucked in here. Q365, nobody up the road. Israel Premitech likewise don’t have any of anybody up there. But these guys are now thinking to themselves, if we keep this sensible, we might have a chance of a stage win. And that it is beyond Kurt. It they declare it was declared as Ryan G. I thought it was beyond Kurt. I did say it was beyond Kurt and I’m sticking with beyond Kurt and it is beyond Kurt. I don’t know. Sometimes there’s an embarrassment of riches with my predictions. They they are piling into this. So, when’s our next action point? It will be in 2 kilometers time and that will be the recycle feed zone. That’s not an action point. I beg you. It’s It’s going to be when we go climbing again. So, we’re on this little plateau. We’ll take a little downhill run and then we’ll be up the uh uh Pre Vanet climb. Very good, Colin. I’m I’m getting there, aren’t I? Yes, you’re getting there. That’s when they climb. So, Israel Prep more than happy. They will now uh set a balance. They’ll pace themselves. This is actually good news for Uno X. They got a man up the road, which means that they won’t have to fully invest in this. It’s possibly a little bit of bad news as it stands for Alexander Kristoff who wants another stage win. Um they’ve got a man up there that means that they will be fresh and if if it does get to be that the GC teams start to fight each other and I’ve got to say that Tom Pitcock wants some distance between himself and Corbyn Strong and that very fighting later on could be the killing of the break because they’ll be fighting each other over the climbs possibly in the last two laps I would say. So it’s not all over. So, don’t go and make yourself a cup of tea and open the biscuits just yet. There’s still some drama to be had. Uh, these are sprints and they usually allow in a scenario like this, somebody from one of the smaller teams because the points mean nothing, the bonus seconds mean nothing. Uh, but what the prize money does and it’s magnified its importance to the smaller teams. So, Diego Urati Uriati was allowed to take that intermediate sprint, not cuz he’s looking for sprint points. um it’s not going to do him much good in that competition, but quite frankly because he’s got a team with some mechanics and what they do is they gather all the prize money together and they divide it up amongst the team at the end of the race normally at the end of a season actually sometimes at the end of a race for those who’ve been there as a thank you to the team. So I’m here there’s a prize up for grabs an intermediate sprint. I’m gonna go and take it and then we can just um I don’t know buy ourselves some uh wreck fish at the end at the end of the day and give it a try. I love that cotton. You know uh some people some athletes they do the racing but of course you have a team that is uh huge that you can that is important for support. So it’s nice that they share their points and the prices. Exactly. Um, every win in cycling is not just about the rider who has done it. It’s about the entire team. Uh, personally speaking, and you can take this to the Olympic Committee if you wish. Um, I think it’s very unfair that on an eight man rowing boat. Um, nine people get medals. So, that’s the and the eight athletes. Um, and in a cycling team, one gets it at the end of the Olympic road race, despite the fact that they’ve all done a job. They should all get a medal, but they don’t. Just one rider goes up on the road race. Yes, it’s quite brutal. It’s the one, the winner takes it all, but you know, we have the climbers, you have the team, and all the winners, they always says that to you guys in sports, how important the team is to succeed, but one has uh to win it. So, I I will keep that to the Norwegian Olympic Committee and also to the IOC. Thank you. Um, and if you want to make it fair because some some nations can only send one rider and so some nations have three riders. Some some as many as four I think it’s the maximum within the Olympic road race. Yes, I believe so. You pull it back and you say you can only to take part you have to have three riders and then you can give them all a medal. There you go. I’ve got the answer for you. Thank you, Carton. I will note that in my notebook because it is a team sport, but it’s the only, as far as I know, as far as I can think, it’s the only Olympic team that awards only a single medal to the day winner and doesn’t actually recognize the rest of the team. I mean, we know, but Yeah. So, that’s important part of this sport. Exactly. The dynamic, the strategic, the tacticals. Exactly. Um, I guess because historically there’s been an imbalance. Look at this. Welcome to Mid Trums. It’s beautiful. This is uh our hometown where we grew up with the mountains and you also have the vibrant city with the culture life. We can go on the mountains one day, Carton, and then go to a amazing concert in the evening. You see the fishery that we have always been living uh from and living together with and working with. So it’s a important part of our livelihood in the Arctic capital of Trums and Mitrums. And you see you see the reindeers, you see the nice modern buildings, you have a huge contrast, but it’s very uh northern. It’s very Norwegian. It is a place that has something for absolutely everybody. It’s gorgeous. I’m glad Carton that you think that and we experienced the whole world is now coming here. Yes. And it’s worth fighting for or at least defending. Yes, of course. In a in a very difficult and sad world, we have to stay together and we have to uh take care of each other and sportsmanship and sport combined us. So that’s why I love sports and articles. Yes. Uh sport of course is a way of entering conflict in a safe and healthy manner. Yes. And that’s the main core of the Olympic movement and sportsmanship and womenship. So that’s important especially in today’s world. Well, Mid Thros has been a spectacular background for what has been an amazing race and we thank the Arctic Race of Norway for bringing it to us. 92 kilometers just shy of the day remaining and 90 seconds. It’s not a big gap, is it? I mean, it’s not 7 minutes. It’s never going to get up there. Why? Because we’ve got a lot of firepower here. Oh, this could well get to be a bit scary, Mary. Uh let’s let’s see as we go deeper into the day. Case bowl um up as part of uh the front gang here. Um I guess of those who are here, he would possibly form part of my uh uh my my original strategy. Would I be a director sport? Giannis Haynes can’t be dis uh discounted either. And uh Hilmo um you you look at his Palmarez and you realize that he’s got something very very special on board. He’s been quiet of late, but he went loud in Austria. Got himself a solid top 10. I think he finished seventh there. Um, but yeah, he is here and I think the respect that is being offered up to the breakaway is clear by the gap here that’s been allowed, not a massive one. Here’s your Mr. Comativity, the most active rider from stage three. Where’s the redbacked numbers as a result of that? Uh, from the national team of Norway. Great news for them. Sven Sven Eric Bistrom is got himself a wonderful contract with Unix mobility for next year. So he’s leaving group Frasure. Um he is part of the fighting force that is the Norwegian team that actually animated the race beautifully. They’ve been very much active in the breakaways and attempting to uh to make a noise for themselves. Uh this is very strange. Now I’m just having a look see here because ballerini um there’s a B let me just have a look at this because Case Bowl’s pinned numbers don’t match the bike. Let’s have a look. Oo well there’s a fine at least here. Um and I’ve got a feeling that this indeed there we are. It’s Ballerini. Um, but he’s wearing number 23 on his back, but he’s got the number 22 bike. Let’s wait and see, shall we? They have um they’re they’re confounding us right now. Um, and the reason is the bike does not match the man. I think it’s Berini. Well, there you are. I’ve been banging on about it, but um uh it appears he’s pinned on the wrong race numbers, but he’s got the right bike. Goodness me. There you are. Meanwhile, bike exchange. Nothing quicker than that. If you’ve got the bike you want to hand and it’s Lorenzo Roa that gets it. Um he could have been uh somebody that might fly away today. Got the right name. Uh but uh but not to be I’m afraid. He tried to get in one of the early incarnations of the break, but there you go. Um so it’s actually David Balerini was up front. So my apologies to you, but um you can understand the misguide uh from the helicopter shots. As soon as we get back downstairs, you realize it’s the big brick of a man himself, but he’s actually got he’s actually got the wrong number on his on his back. He’s pinned on the wrong numbers, but anyway, there you go. Um, it’s not my fault. Some people shaking a fist at the screen saying, “Well, it is partly to be honest.” But, uh, but anyway, there you go. That’s a challenge. Um, I mean, get the right bike or get the right numbers to pin on. They’ll get a fine for that a little bit later on. And the reason they’ll get a fine is that misrepresenting yourself going into a breakaway is a big no no. So if riders look at the number and the team themselves say it’s okay. It’s so and so who’s gone up the road. It’s a way of disguising yourself. I think this is an honest mistake. See he’s wearing number 23 on his back but he’s carrying but the number on his bike is actually his. That’s ballerini. Uh but he’s got case balls numbers. Oh, they have been uh stacking different. Yeah, he’s accidentally pinned on 23 instead of 22. What can you do? It happens in sports. It does, but um they they will get sanctioned for it uh because you’re not allowed to misrepresent yourself um up the road. But um you know, it’s not my fault. Here we go. We got a king of the mountains uh uh to come. That’s a to me personally that’s a bit of a shame cuz I I would have loved to have seen Gay B up there. I I didn’t actually fully believe in Berini because I thought to be honest as a uh uh as sort of veteran status 30 years of age. Yes, I know that Alexander Kristoff is what is he 36 or 38 even um is an older statesman and goes very very quickly and did so here as you well know by taking stage two. Alexander Kristoff is 38. Yeah. In fact, he turned 38 on the on the uh 5th of July. So, no disrespect to anybody. uh 245 m until we get to the top. So, Ballerini um has pinned on Case B’s numbers. Uh but that’s okay. They’ll get themselves a fight. We know who he is. Uh finally, uh but yeah, 93 seconds only is the margin. Still an awful lot of respect offered up and the reason is but the Italian ballerini can climb and he can sprint. He usually um thrives when you’ve got uphill ramps. Uh but as it stands, you can see he’s climbing well here and he’s got a kick on him at the end. So very explosive. I think he’s possibly amongst this group possibly the favorite. Um Jonas Haynes would argue with that. So would Halter and Kos I imagine but um oh bit of a fracturing through the king of the mountains here. And again prize money going to bed. So the smaller teams allowed to take the points because everyone is here wants indeed a stage win. Nice work. If you can get under and uh sorry, un Holter is here. Uh just checking out his hands was uh Bjon Kurt. Uh just wanted to make sure that um he hadn’t actually strained anything there. just just making sure that his uh his glutes and his hamstrings were were all okay. And there is the golden jersey just as bib position five P5 as we stand. Uh look for the um uh the blue jersey with the Red Bull sponsored helmet in about wheel eight at the moment. If you just look beyond the red shoulders of our young rider classification jersey carrier, you will see, of course, just tucked in there is uh is Tom Pitcock. Now, he was the favorite coming into this race. Hasn’t quite worked out for him. Would have liked a bit of a gap uh on Corbyn Strong um but didn’t get it. In fact, he trails him by 6 seconds at the moment. Here is Corbin Strong. No worries for him. He’s um controlling a breakaway if uh he he won’t have too many fears about those who are up the road. And as it stands, he’s heading for victory here unless Dom Pit will attack him and that is likely to come a little bit later on. Looking back through the back here with the sort of mists really. The rain has abated, but we have a uh it’s kind of um what they would call in Ireland a soft day. There’s moisture in the air, the very lightest of drizzles. Uh you can see it reflected on the camera lens as we speak. And in a certain way, that is more difficult to deal with, would you believe, than heavy rain, out and out heavy rain or indeed a dry road obviously. And the reason is you don’t know what the uh adhesion rate is for your tires on variable um gly slippy surface such as this. If it’s full on rain, you know what to expect. If it’s fully dry, likewise, if it is neither soaking wet nor dry, you don’t know how to take it. which explains why they are taking this so gingerely down this descent. They’re giving the road a lot of respect because they don’t want to fall off. They’re not sure about the grip levels. No, it’s difficult now when it’s like that. Yes, very much so. Um, now they’ve got a bit more confidence because they’ve been through a few corners on the descent. They can give a bit more speed, which explains how they’re pacing up. Also, the descent is now over, so they can actually pick speed back up. Bizarrely, they’re going to be faster on um the less accented descent. Um so, when it flattens out, they will pick the pace up again because they were just so worried about the corners. Uh nobody wants anything silly to happen. Uh meanwhile, here’s the chase. Uh holding at just under 90 seconds as you can see. Uh good pace about us today as well. Um average speed today is uh is up there. We are just shy of uh the average is 43 kilometers per hour. So um in terms of our average speed um let’s have a look what Oh that poor old cameraman. Yes every round. It’s the same. It’s the same same every time. Um yes is um he’s being challenged and he’s doing a great job of bringing us our pictures. So um the pace rate today, the fastest uh predicted pace was 44 km an hour. So we’re quite close to that, which means our predicted finish today will be about uh about 10 to 6 this evening. Um and so that will be in about an hour and 50 minutes if it carries on like this. I think the the uh the pace of the day will actually be closer to 46 km/h, which will be finishing earlier than that because it’s going to get faster and faster and faster. This man’s going slower and slower and slower. And it’s Pier Tour. Now, he is not a very confident descender. Now, you can probably tell that by this. He’s had some crashes in his career, and once the confidence goes, this is about the last thing you need is an unstable road surface when it’s not your thing. Um, I love watching Pierre Lau and I’ve loved watching him in the past. He’s actually gone quiet at the moment. He’s still got plenty of time within his career to actually go loud again, but he’s not going to take any chances when you have a day such as this and a surface such as this. He doesn’t want to play that game. It’s as simple as that because he’s got um a season to finish essentially. He’s had a stage win in the welter, never managed it in the tour to France. Had a couple of second places along the way. Um but yeah, I remember that year uh 2016 when he did the job. He’d actually be growing very strongly earlier on that year as well. He’d won uh the uh he’d actually podiumed in the GC and the AI as well. He’s one of those guys who um uh 2018 he um uh was third in the general classification. You might remember um on the tour of Catalunia. And during that race, we had a a crash. It was it mass who crashed I think on the very last day and allowed um Pier Lour to come through. It was very much a um a difficult road surface to deal with I seem to remember. Uh but yeah Pier one one of the good guys of cycling but uh today not to be it was Aen Bernal who uh took a crash I remember. Yeah it was on stage seven. Uh so yeah um a Colombian in fact and he was a very young Egan Bernell at that time. He was in the young riders competition. I mean it was uh 10 years ago he was 18 and everyone saying he is TNBT the next big thing but unfortunately it wasn’t to be that day. That was a long time ago. Anyway, that’s a little window into Pier Tour. Uh 82.6 kilometers from home and it’s absolutely solid the gap. There could be a tow rope between the breakaway that we’re looking at right now and in fact the pelatin. Next passage of the finish line will be in about 2 km time. So everybody who is at the finish line now under umbrellas or at the um rather sushi um I’ve got to tell you um VIP box which I’m not allowed in. Um I haven’t got the full accreditation. Apparently I will be allowed to go and sample some of the volivons and grapes after the day is finished. But yes, you do deserve it. You should have the access. But this is quite VIP as well. Yes, it is actually. This is the best way. These are the best seats in the house to buy to my light. You don’t have to have small talk and hold a glass of wine. No, you you can only have sports and follow the race and have sports just like you. So I love this. Exactly. It’s uh it’s the best seat in the house. Um I was um uh before my dad passed, bless him, um we actually managed to I’m actually get him in the tour to France commentary box in my home city of Sheffield. Uh he took the bus and joined me and Sean Kelly to call home Vicentoni, I think it was back in the day. And uh that was a that was a very special time and he was he was blown away uh by just what goes on and how how many uh plates you need to keep spinning um to actually uh to bring it home. Yes, it’s impressive. It’s an intense sit setup here and it must be a core memory both for your father, rest in peace, and also for you of course to see what you do. It is. Yes, he was he was he was so pleased. He was bragging about it for years. Yeah. Oh, that’s nice. Meanwhile, uh, absolutely rock solid. So, Ballerini with Kurt, Kilmos, Versier, Haynes, Uriati, Fet, and indeed ha, and still we ply our trade as we come into the befooted section. This always worries me. It’s the same with cycling everywhere. You have these exposed feet. At 300 m from the line, the hoardings are indented, which makes them far safer. So you can actually get closer to the haulings in the last 300 meters. Um but sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge barriers and they they’ve made a news to themselves in the past. But we haven’t found a better way of looking after the public and indeed the riders and indeed 300 m extension of the the indented barriers makes it safe for everybody at a good distance. So, we cross the line and there’ll be an intermediate sprint up a little peak in a few moments time, but the laps are ticking down. That was the fourth crossing of the line. We will have the eighth crossing with one lap to go. So, we actually crossed the line nine times, the ninth time being the finish line itself. How nice is this? There you are. Elbows clicking out. Come on, your turn. They’re sharing the duties nicely though here. Uh it’s been an absolute pleasure to have your company. It goes on of course. Sebastian Hendrikson. Um your life here has um has been an interesting one. The city itself offers up um opportunities to young people and particularly uh next year. We’ve got a big festival here. Yes, we have quite a big festival and it’s the European capital, youth capital that comes to Drums. Now this year is in Lev in Ukraine and now it comes to Trumsa and Trumsa has a very rich history when it comes to youth engagement in politics, in sports, in business life, in at the university, the student house and the student movement. So it will be amazing and it will be different arrangements through the whole year uh focusing on the youth leadership and how you could have youth uh voices into sports um into the municipality and into the business life in Truma and that will be for the whole year. So how are you going to uh accommodate this rush of youth from uh the rest of planet earth? No, we are going to love it. We’re going to welcome you like we do with Artic Grace and we’re going to have a lot of youths from all over Norway, from the northern part of Norway and as you said from all over the world and we will have concert, we will have meetings, we will have debates, we will have uh sports contest and it will be from winter time when it’s snowing and dark cult to this uh lovely summer days that we have had in uh uh through the Arctic race and today as well. I might have to bring my standup show here. Yes, I would love that. It’s all the craziness of cycling and of course with their heart of course now uh opened as it has been in the past uh to the Arctic race. Um I’ll make you laugh. Yes, I will buy a ticket. I will buy a ticket. That’s kind of you. Uh yeah. Um my road show actually goes on be uh after this um in the leadup to the uh uh the welter as well and indeed beyond after it. I’m visiting Scotland. So, uh, Edinburgh, Abedine, I’ll be coming up to see you. Um, I will be in Stoke and Stanford in October. Abedine and Edinburgh, Isha as well. And, uh, yeah, it’s it’s all good fun. And, um, so many stories to tell, I can tell you from, uh, 35 years on the road. Yes. You have a rich life. You get to see a lot of sports and a lot of destinations. I do. Yes. It’s been a it’s been a gift, I can tell you. and cycling of course it’s a wonderful way of nations showing the best of themselves and um I think sportsmen as well sportsmen and women it’s a an amazing and the women’s cycling scene is just so enormous now I had the privilege of calling home the women’s Milano San Ramo this year which was just phenomenal and of course I’m very much attached to uh women’s track cycling and the world championships as well which I’ll be enjoying this year both time trial and the road racing uh coming from Rwanda which proves I think it’s the first world champs that we’ve had in a in the continent of Africa. So it’s a sport for the globe and how nice is that? You just have to look at the roster of nations that are involved these days and um Africa still needs more encouragement I think to to join the likes of uh of uh South America. I know you have a connection to Colombia as well. Colombian riders very much part by presidential decree. It was back in the day that uh cycling was deemed to be um a way of not only highlighting a country but also showing the best of both teamwork and individual endeavor and fortitude by presidential decree. And so money was actually put in, funding was given, bikes were given. And that’s why we have this huge wave of Colombian cyclists who’ve come through and indeed shown a lot of countries that actually you don’t have to necessarily be one of the richest countries in the planet to produce great riders because they Colombia has produced so many. Yes, it’s been impressive. And I always as a child when I saw the tour in France, oh that guy is from Colombia. It was uh it was impressive for me, you know, to that’s my national country, Norway and Colombia. So it’s amazing and it’s important that we also get a different part of the world into the sports, not only the European part. Yeah, you’ve got a lot to be proud of in that regard. Um yeah and uh of course it had a a a washing effect within uh the the region as well because Venezuela, Ecuador um these countries also providing fantastic uh riders that have really just helped the whole of uh of cycling to become uh truly global. So our thanks to uh indeed that part of the world and and the hope is that Africa continues as well to provide us with um amazing riders that we have had and indeed enjoyed many more I’m sure still to come. So here we are. This is um a holding pattern just for now. This is Israel Premier Tech that are indeed bouncing around this rather beautiful city that we are dealing with. The setting is absolutely remarkable and of course this entire race has been uh ridden in the most spectacular of scenery. It’s a gift for you to come here and to enjoy it and of course it’s very worthwhile preserving. Um, and in that regard, this race does its part. We are, would you believe, completely electric. The Arctic Race of Norway wants to be the most sustainable cycling event in the world. On the 11th edition and the second time in the row, we are 100% electric. We have hydropower, electricity, and we have movable charger. And we’re here to support the Arctic race of Norway with 16 Campar movable chargers. They’re DC fast chargers, so they are able to charge 130 of these cars in about 40 5 minutes or so. Together, we make this possible and we look forward to inspire other cycling events all over the world. the voice there of Eric Dibdal who is of course our managing director of the Arctic Race of Norway and it’s an amazing event that he puts on for us here and of course a very sound ecological sense as well that the vehicles that uh follow the race are entirely electric and it’s been like that for a couple of years now. Yes, it’s cool. It’s uh the first race, you know, 100% electrical in Norway, the northern part of Norway and it was important for the partner Hyundai and now we are getting there and we have the infrastructure to do that and it’s quite big carton because you have to move to remote places but you have to have the charging and all that. Exactly. I remember uh 3 years ago um we had uh mobile charging units in the more remote areas and now those areas themselves do have installed and um and electric charging points at your disposal. So um it was a very difficult thing to deliver but was very brave by this race to take it on at the time. You know there’s a danger that um teams riders journalists might not arrive in some of the very big distances that we deal with here. Um but of course it all came together. It was proven that it could be done in terms of logistics and infrastructure and here we are an all electric race. Yes indeed. And that just shows how Arctic race is more than a race because that infrastructure will be left behind. So we that live in the northern part of Norway we use this infrastructure every day. Not only when it’s the race but every day. A legacy. A legacy of the race itself. Uh we just saw the airport as well. It does have an airport. I’ll be taking off from that tomorrow afternoon. Um, so I’ve got uh, which is nice actually. They said, “Do you want to go on the early flight, the red eyee as they call it at uh, uh, which means that I had to get up at 3:00 in the morning.” I said, “What’s the alternative?” They said, “Go at 1:00 in the afternoon.” And I said, “That’s what I’ll have. Have a nice I’ll have a nice breakfast. It’ll also allow me to relax into this evening as well, which I’m very much looking forward to.” Uh, minute and five is what we’re dealing with. By the way, um, spare us your thoughts. It’s lovely to have your company by the way and and thank you for joining us from uh down under um both in New Zealand and Australia uh from over in the North Americas, the Asia Pacific Rim as well. Um you have found a wonderful race here and um my hope I’m carton Kirby is that you have enjoyed the coverage. It seems that most of you have and we have the gift of Sebastian Hendrison from the Norwegian uh National Olympic Committee was the youngest person ever appointed um in the history of the Olympics from this great Olympic nation as well. So congratulations on that. I mean you’re a veteran now. How old are you now? Thank you my friend. I’m 27 now. There you are. You see which means he’s come to his physical peak. Everybody be scared. And also my peak in life commenting with you and I I love sports. I love cycling. This is amazing. There you go. You see there’s no shortage of compliments here. Uh and many of them coming in from you um uh who are watching in and you’ve got a great race today. It’s being dealt with at pace. Uh and the ha from X up the road. Might he make the steel? Well, why not? Aund a minute and five indeed. Um is our uh our gap at the moment. And the rain is starting to slightly intensify as we speak, which is potentially not good news um for the riders, but it’s going to make things it’s going to add yet a uh another um element to the day. We got a proper pace about this. Well, let’s see. Um, the belief is starting to eb because it’s now a closed gap of a minute and four. Maxed out at about a minute and 40. Uh, playing with the center of the road is Andreas who has been um quite prominent throughout the day. There are others who are not in the breakaway, possibly have teammates up there or thinking I could have something out of this. Yiannis Haynes is up there. He wouldn’t have been the automatic choice I don’t think for team Flanders Belwis. Uh he is quick and he can climb so that’s good. But if this day is going to offer up some protection to fast men then I imagine it would be someone like Jee Hers who we remind you as a rank outsider finished fourth on stage two behind Alexander Christo himself. So Hersa is actually moved to the front of the pelatin so that if this comes together he wants to make sure that he’s still very much part of proceedings. Here you’ve got a club rider at the side of the road trying to race the pros and he’s doing a reasonable job of it but he’s out of the saddle and they at least until that moment were plonked in it. They’ve come to join him. He is determined to try and beat them over the top by riding on the pavement. Now, uh, scoop up your little kids because we got a a club rider who wants to show off here now. I mean, you know, good luck to him, but he’s starting to flag just a little bit. I think he’s found out just how good the pros are. They’re relaxed having chitchats to each other. He is breathing very deeply. It’s the Northern Confident that we’re seeing now. Well, he’s doing a good job of it. He’s got a um he’s got a luxury beard like Jeffrey Soup or Simon Gaer. Um and at the moment he’s actually beating the pros, but um then again, I don’t think they’re fully invested. They’re pacing themselves. He is going for the sprint. Is he going to get there? He’s got to get through the bus stop. He’s got more obstacles as well as well along the way. And it looks like he’s sat down and given up the ghost. But it was nice for him to feature on television. Al although I’ve got to say safety wise people um riding on the pavement is possibly not a good thing but I understand where he’s coming from here as a fan and um if they’re if his family are recording this or he’s watching the replay oh he’s slowing down now. I knew this would happen. They’re having they’re they’re having a look at him as well um as a pelinant. Um I I think when they get to the top, once they drift away from him, they’ll probably give him the thumbs up cuz that was a very very good effort. Excellent work. 370 m until we get to the top. Um he might actually been marshaled off the pavement here and indeed asked to desist because he’s actually making it dangerous as he approaches um the top and in fact he has given up the coast which um thank goodness for that. It’s uh it’s usually uh whenever you get an action point or a K point um there’s usually too many people hanging around there. So uh he’s uh discretion is the greater form of valor, but it was nice to see him have a go. Uh so yeah, still our breakaway minute 13. They’ve got 9%. This is no laughing matter. If you try and even walk up this, it’s going to be a challenge. 11% even more so. Did tell you we got into double figures. Now you believe it. It’s a proper grind this. It’s a uh a a course that’s been designed to entertain us and challenge the riders. Yes, it’s very entertaining. It’s a tough tough route. It’s brutal with the city of Hills. Well, there are there is so much altitude gain here, I’ve got to tell you. Um today we are mustering ourselves for just over 2100 meters. 2,100 meters. translates at um over 6,000 ft and that’s where commercial aircraft are quite happy to uh to entertain themselves. So considering you’re going from sea level to the climb and indeed constantly up and down, it’s a proper challenge today. 71.7 kilometers to go bouncing as they are. So what teams today? Well, don’t look too far beyond Israel Premier Techch and they’re mobbing the front of the race as we speak. I think they’re sort of calling for a little bit of help from some of the other teams, but nothing’s being offered just yet. Aston don’t have to work too hard. They’ve got a rider um up the road in the form of David Balerini um who is unfortunately for for us wearing Case B’s numbers. He’s pinned on the wrong ones. They will get a fine at the end of the day, but I think it was uh it was more than innocent. Here’s the grind. And there is the golden jersey. I’ve got to say um of the races they designed some beautiful jerseys here. The Northern Lights jersey for the King of the Mountains is uh is very very special. And the Midnight Sun jersey, so it’s a it’s yellow that sort of uh bleeds down to orange at the waistline, as you can see, is also extraordinarily attractive, I think. So, yeah. Um if you’d like one, then don’t forget you can get hold of one uh from the race website. If you just Google Arctic Race of Norway, then you will find it. Here is Alexander Kristoff. Now, this looks like a man who is um is battling the course. Let’s put it that way. Pier Lau, who was sketchy on the descent, was there. And Kristoff looks like the stage win today. He may not add to his tally. Let’s see. It’s It’s been ridden hard. That’s his problem. Yes, he seemed tired. Yeah, we shall see. I think everyone is because this has been a full-on racing every single day. There’s not really been a holding pattern, has there? No. Artic race is intense and of course with this final lap is brutal. It is. Um he does like a highway approach. Does Alexander Kristoff as well? I know the stage that he won was beautifully delivered, but it was still about 300 350 m of straight road that he took on. It was a rise as well when he took um took the win, but it’s nothing like the climbing. And you know, it’s his final season. It’s his final race. Um and I think they will make sure to make a fuss of him on the podium at the end of today because it will be his last uh competitive race in Norway before his career draws to a close. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the world of cycling. He speaks well. He has a good strategic mind as well and he has a very very high standards. So um yeah, don’t be surprised if you find to Usoft um Alexander Kristoff joining the likes of Tor Usoft in the commentary position. Um and indeed along with our good friend here Sebastian Hendrix from the Olympic Committee who is illuminating the day for us. Um spectacles on reverse here for Pierre Lau at the back. uh hasn’t fully invested yet, but with only a minute and 10 with 70 kilometers to go, this could well come back together and have a different complexion about it. Minute and eight and the sun just seems to be poking out. Rain has now looks like it’s almost abated. Let’s have a look. Yeah, we still actually we still have a very very light drizzle. This is a magnificent beach uh bridge I should say. We mentioned it earlier but tell us more. Yes and carton. This is actually the other bridge. You have two bridges combining the main island from the mainland Truman and with the Arctic Cathedral and then you have Cara. So this is the main island and uh uh downside with the bridge you see our new uh area of the city developed newly with the like houses, restaurants, hotel. So this is a very famous uh picture of Trumsa. There we are. Um opened in uh 1960. Would that have been the cathedral as well which you could see yet again at that point. Absolutely beautiful part of town that of course was heavily involved in whaling and fishing industries back in the day. And uh I I’ve seen some of the development that’s going on. Uh the building that looks like somebody’s just pushed it over. Yes. Is down there along with um an homage to Arctic exploration. Yes. Which we also have. That’s a homage. And the Arctic is so it’s so central in the history of the city. Actually, my grandfather when he was a child, his father traveled with um boats and when he came home from the fishery, he had a polar bear for my grandfather and then they had it for some weeks and then they sold it to the different slogos uh to the SS in Berlin, in London and all over the place. Oh, really? So, it used to be very like wildlife in Arctic and now it’s a city, guys. Wow. Yes. Uh, I mean, you don’t want to keep hold of a polar bear uh for too long cuz it’s going to get very big. Yes. And very strong. Yes, indeed. And very hungry. Yes, indeed. Probably need a zoo. Uh, to be honest, um, my own family actually came from the seaf fairing port um, and trading port of Liverpool uh, originally. And, um, my grandfather was a merchant seaman. So, uh, he was part of the merchant, uh, vessels that tried to keep supplies to Europe during the war and transfer children and what have you, uh, to safety to the United States, etc. Uh, that’s where, um, he, uh, indeed applied his own trade. But yeah, um, he he foolishly um once bought a marmazette monkey because all kinds of trade would come into the port. Um, and it was given to my mother for for Christmas and um it bit her on the ear and uh went and hid in the light shade in the center of the house. Uh so that soon went back um was soon found a home in a zoo as well. So um you you had a polar bear and we had a mama zip monkey. Anyway, the kat this looks like a listening post. Yes, that’s amazing. It’s one of the most um impressive companies that we have in Trumsa in the northern part of Norway. They deliver satellite service all over the world and has newly started a collaboration with Amazon and they have satellites all over the world and work with downstream uh downstream satellites not like rockets sending up but they work with the satellites all over the world. Yeah, there you are. A relay station and because of the uh the clear skies and uh the position you have with a lack of uh any kind of um uh radio or other interruptions uh absolutely perfect for bouncing signals. Yes, it’s just like that carton. And this is a hidden jam and they want to keep it that because they know a lot of things that it’s classified. There we are. Which I’m not allowed to talk about. Not me either. Even if I knew them, which I don’t. So don’t ring me up and ask. 66.1 kilometers from home. It’s gone back out to a minute and 25, but it’s modest margins at the moment. Uh this is a holding pattern and the laps are ticking down very very quickly. We’re we’re what over the halfway mark now. Just there we are. We’re nearly done. It’s gone quickly, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s too quickly. It’s Tom Pickot back at the car. What are the battle plans? Dad is what he’s saying. It’s not his father in the car. He’s, you know, he’s he’s just being familiar. Uh yeah, he goes back to the car, wants to know, by the way, these cars are fantastic. Hyundai is our vehicle sponsor for the race and we thank them. Uh Tom Pitcock having a chat. Q365, what’s the battle plan at this sort of pace? How on earth do you escape and find six seconds from Corbyn Strong, who’s coping very, very well at the moment, well protected by his his his own teammates. Tom Pitcock possibly not got the strongest team around him, Q365, but he does thrive very well on his own. He had to do that yesterday. Um he did beat Corbyn Strong, but Corbin Strong himself was amazing. Um for a fast man, he coped with the big climb yesterday and he’s coping with these apparently extremely well as well. So if it comes down to a coming together, there are 10 six and four bonus seconds at the line. If Pitcock was to get the stage ahead of Corbyn strong, and in that scenario, you would back strong because he’s the he’s the quickest sprinter. Um, then bonus seconds may well come into it, but the gap that Bitcock will have to get will be on the climbs. They will have had to kill off the breakaway and him to get a gap and possibly bonus seconds as well. That’s hard to do. Quite a big leap to come there. Come there. They come to the line. And indeed we think about time. That’s what indeed keeps us all together, does it not? Ballerini. Um if you got your um sheets together, by the way, you’ll know that he is number 22. But he’s pinned on 23 by accident this morning. Um he rides, however, the correct bike. So he’s picked up the right bike, number 22 as Ballerini. And amongst this group, he would probably be favorite. He can take ramps, climbs, short ones because there’s enough recovery for him to get back and kill off a sprint at the end of the day. But there are very accomplished riders here as well. Possibly Fet is an outsider for the Lilah Hammer uh team, but nonetheless, they would have looked for Holstead, I think, to be involved in a sprint scenario at the end of the day. The gap goes back out to 91 seconds now. Bit of a pinch point here as well. And um some sheer surfaces. They’ve put brick uh with expansion joints um uh built into it as well. Uh in some parts of the world they actually call those clinkers because the expansion joints they have to be allowed to move. When the summer comes they expand and when the winter comes they they contract. Um, so yeah, I mean all bridges as well have to have expansion joints built into them in order that the bridge doesn’t destroy itself with heating up and cooling down. It’s impressive. And this is actually the main street of Trumsa and it’s brand new. It’s not even open yet. Next week we open it and it has been under construction for 2 years. There you are. They’ve done a fabulous job which explains what how why it is so impeccable. They cross the line. It’s a minute and 28 now with uh Israel Premier Techch doing the moderating at the moment. Look at Coffeidus now. They are the ones with the golden shoulders and the red bibs. Uh they’re on the left hand side of the road as we’re looking at it right now and they’re moving up and into position. And the reason they’re doing this is because they have Dylan turns. He had great success here in 2017. And in fact, this race has been in Drums in the past. Sometimes it’s been as part of our starting procedure, sometimes as not. Marcus Holgard, it was in 2021, rode home alone with two seconds down to the pelatin. Uh that sprint was brought home by none other than Alexander Kristoff ahead of Brian Kokar, another great veteran sprinter, Dylan Turns. It was um your man from Confidence in 2017. Who is our man still having a go? He’s doing it again. Um I think he’s just ridden back down on this paving. He wants to be on television. Bless him. And he’s he’s getting his wish. Dylan Turns continue his dominance riding home alone with 11 seconds with three pursuers. That was Luke Shu. Uh Sven Eric Beastrom the man who rides for the Norway national team who’s just got a contract with for next season with Unoex Mobility and Irons Sam Bennett. We do have Irish representation here in the form of uh of course Eddie Dumbar. Um, so yeah, we’ll be cheering Eddie if he lights up later on. I don’t think it’s for him today. I think it’ll be for Felix Angelhart if he gets his chance later on. And Alexander Kristoff himself won in 2014. He won a sprint to Uso was thinking about how he was going to celebrate and um when they came to the line he was just about to put his arms up and Alexander Kristoff passed him. That’ll teach him. Uh now of course to Usoft is the boss of Alexander Kristoff in unit X mobility and they still talk about it. Yes and that’s quite a big adventure for Norwegian sport and cycling Kman. It’s our first prof professional teams and now with the tour France it was amazing. Yeah I think it’s the beginning of something great. I agree and they have been giant killers for quite some time actually and you know making sure that they get riders like Alexander Kristoff and Licknerson Halter Village you know this is a good roster to say the very least it would be the envy of many many teams but it’s taken a they’ve done it sensibly they haven’t tried to do too much too early they’ve taken their invitations to races very seriously and made sure that they are beating teams from a higher division and And then ultimately, of course, they found themselves at the top table and I I think the uh uh more power to them. They’ve been fantastic for cycling. It’s been great to watch. And as a neutral, you find yourself always looking out for Uno X mobility. I think when I first came across them, I was trying to describe their uh their kit and I described it as lipstick and custard. I don’t know how that went down, but they’re the right colors. Yes, they are the right colors. And as you it’s a very good summary you give because it’s a good cross with all the athletes. It’s a nice age on the athletes and of course to with his experience as an athletes and now as the director leading the process is very I I have a strong good feeling about that. Uh T to is um is uh he’s a fascinating character. When he was when he was on the bike he was absolutely lethal. um you know very much a predator um and then off the bike a complete gentleman and um he’s a it’s a pleasure to uh share um uh commentary as it is of course with you Sebastian um but uh but yeah he’s um his wisdom comes through and I tease him occasionally and uh and you can see that twinkle in his eye. I’m glad you tease him. He deserves it. But he’s an amazing guy. He’s, as you said, totally lovely. Off the field, off the track, he’s nice. He’s warm, and he has a lot of knowledge in many aspects of sports. Yes, exactly. I mean, he’s a sport psychologist dream, yet it came to him naturally. So, yes, he fills uh he could fill any void within a team, I’m sure, possibly at any sport. But uh yeah um but he he is quite clearly a man who garners a lot of respect not only because he’s very nice but I think being nice is a gift to those um who have power over others. It’s no good being a bully. Um and I think the most assured people are indeed those who are prepared to be uh warm with those who are perhaps not as gifted and and have as many gifts uh as as themselves but appreciate that and that’s very much to us and uh yeah we love him. would love working with him and I’m sure UNOX as well are delighted to have him as a as a steering guide to what has been a brilliant touring uh team project in UNOX mobility and Norway can be very proud of him. Yes. And Carton, that’s a beautiful message to our listeners and our viewers with when it comes to kindness. Life’s become richer and more fun if you meet people with kindness. Exactly that. Yes. We should all be putting an arm around each other metaphorically, emotionally, and just getting on with life. I mean, we’re all lucky to be here in the first place for goodness sake. Yes, indeed. They say life is a lottery. And some get better tickets than others at the beginning and if they appreciate their gifts and share them, then everybody wins. There we are. End of the philosophy. Back to the racing. It’s 60 km to go and they have highlighted quite cleverly and clearly some of the danger moments, some of the pinch points. Now just remember this point as well. 60ks to go. Uh but this part of the course is what I’m trying I’m asking you to remember because it will be hellish when they approach that a little bit later. Um and you’d better have your uh strategy head on. It’s um it’s the preview to the climb. So, it’ll be through a recycle zone very late on, possibly around about 10 kilometers to go, something like that. Um, so with 10ks to go, we’ve got a very, very nasty little pinch point. All courses have them. Um, and if it is mobhanded like this, they won’t all fit. So, they’ve got, you’ve got to have a bit of space at that point to shilly shally through it and then continue on and deliver the hammer blows. that indeed um the mighty to himself um in fictional character or indeed in folklore used to issue that was the the god of thunder I believe. Yes, I think so too. No, there you go. I’m not sure, but I think so. Come on. Get your get your mythological beasts together. That’s not my strongest, I must admit. And why should it be? But you knew he carried a hammer. That’s good enough. Uh there we are. Yes. Thor, the uh the the god of thunder. Certainly some it’s a great day, I’ve got to say. Uh Carlton, by the way, is Danish for for a free man. Uh Carol being free and ton being a town. Uh so any town that ends in to in the United Kingdom was formerly Danish. So you see you’ve all been over making a nuisance of yourself historically. It’s part of my gene pool. Uh you’re a bit Norwegian, Colton. a bit quite clearly. Um yeah, the speed cams um we’re allowed to play with those today. So uh uh yeah, you we we may well be troubling them. There might be some flashes go go off a little bit later because the pace it’s okay. It’s closed roads. Uh one thing that we have noticed is the impeccable respect that you have here and the population seem to have for um speed limits. Yes. Nobody messes around with it, which is uh which is refreshing. Yes. And that’s very Norwegian. We have a big trust when it comes to authorities. Yeah. If they if they close the roads for artic, we listen to that. We don’t take our car. We don’t get mad. We don’t push it. There we are. And um yeah, the only time you see skid marks in the road as well is not because kids have been doing burnouts. It’s possibly because a moose has got involved. Yes. Especially in midums. Yes. Exactly. And that explains why we have this respect of speed limits because it keeps everyone safe, including the moose. Um, Corm Strong is our leader. Uh, Eager Briggsen wears the King of the Mountains jersey. Looks like it might well be going his way. We’ll see if there’s some skirmishes for Mountains Points late on, but none of the competitors for that King of the Mountains jersey up the road. Uh, Tom Pitcock is carrying the points jersey on behalf of Corbyn Strong. And the young riders jersey, the white jersey with the red shoulders is being carried for Corbyn Strong by his very own teammate Riley Sheen of the United States. So Corbyn Strong has got greedy in this race and he may well indeed hold on to those three jerseys of which he is owner of at the moment. So it’ll be um he’ll be bobbing up and down like a jack in the box when it comes to the podium a little bit later on. Sun’s coming out. So the good lord himself is looking down upon us. Um uh and uh uh uh uh uh and indeed uh the shadows just starting to show themselves. It’s certainly brightening just a little bit. Um if not, when you got sun and a little bit of rain, of course, you have a rainbow and at the end of which back to mythology. Uh there’s a pot of gold. Somebody’s going to win today. Who’s your pick? I think perhaps strong. I think you might be right. Coming across the line in the golden jersey. How fabulous would that be? It’s almost a poetic end to the race that the man who leads it wins the final day. That would be two stage wins to his name and he starts as favorite today. Yes. And he have the driven drivenness to do that. He does and he’s got the team around him as well to get that balance and at the moment they’re not panicking. Uh they don’t have anyone in the break and I don’t think they need it either by the looks of them. Well, we have indeed been here before and I guess for knowledge as well, a little bit further down the road, we’ll be uh taking account of the times that we have visited in the past. It’s um it’s been a pleasure. It always is every time we come here to Trumsa. Um, and I’ve absolutely loved it, I must say. Um, this morning I went for a walk and um, I could have gone for a jog, but I haven’t got the shoes, I’m afraid. Um, I lost them. So, I’m just wearing a pair of pumps at the moment, which are kind of leisure shoes. So, I rather than do myself any damage, I went for a stroll this morning and it was an absolutely gorgeous morning. Uh when there is calm here, uh the water becomes like a mirror and just reflects the sky. And with the sun out as well, you kind of got double sunshine uh because not only do you have the sun in the sky, you have it bouncing, of course, not only off the water, but some of these rather spectacular modern buildings around here as well. So, um I went for a stroll this morning. I almost had to put on um uh uh some sunscreen um because I was being I was being I was being toasted. Yeah. It has been a beautiful summer and a beautiful day and it’s changing. The summers are getting warmer and that’s of course because of the climate but it’s uh has been a beautiful summer this year. Tell you what’s also changing and that’s the demeanor of the pelatin. They are going for it and guess what it is picnic postell that want to kick over the hornets’s nest and say yes we know we’ve got a ride in the break but actually we quite fancy getting on with the business of the day and we’re trying to slingshot somebody up the road. Kevin Vermar. Uh, why not? Teimo Deong also extremely strong when it comes to a finale. But this is great. They’ve got somebody up the road. That could be a fighting force of three up there. It’ll also give an excuse to the man who’s in the break not to fully commit to the workload here because he’s suddenly got a an excuse of riders coming up. And here he is. He comes off the front here. Uh, Kurt, he’s still bouncing with it. Hasn’t quite got the telegram just yet. He’s having a chit chat to some others saying some of my teammates are coming up so this might be my last turn over the top. Um looks like if he is going to be asked to back out um that he’s going to roll over the front here and so there he is with 55.7 kilometers of the day remaining. Picks himself up a uh uh in fact he just rolls over an intermediate spin that isn’t there at the moment. Um in fact it’s the the summit I should say of the presset you pardon. So he comes over the top. Meanwhile, his teammate are wrestling and rocking. And look what’s happened to the gap. It’s been absolutely destroyed. So what he thought is, well, if my teammates are coming over, I might as well get some prize money to take back to the truck a little bit later on. And now we can ease up because 39 seconds is no gap at all. Look at the way that TUDA are playing the game here as well. This is getting busy. And look who’s marking everything out. We have Tom Pitcock who’s carrying the points jersey, and Corbin Strong, our race leader. They are separated by only 6 seconds. They’re going to watch each other like hawks. And there’s a 6-second margin. Can you imagine the scenario if Tom Pitcock goes for it and he’s got Corbyn Strong in company here and they’re absolutely locked together. Even if Tom Pitk crossed the line and got 10 bonus seconds, which in a sprint scenario is would be very unusual against Corman Strong, but if he did, then Corbyn Strong himself would get six seconds. There’s a 4-second gap. So it would be 10, six, and four, don’t forget, at the line. And that would mean that Gobdong would win the race by 2 seconds. Now, it’s happened before. We’ve had a single second separate riders for the title. Other teams want to get involved here, and this will help kill off the breakaway. It’s calmed down modestly. And then Q36 pick it up. This is at the behest, of course, of Tom Pitcock. He wants to make this as difficult as he possibly can for Corbyn Strong. Corbyn Strong is not as good a climber as Tom Pitcock. That’s Pitcock’s teammate on the front here. That’s Pitcock in the blue jersey carrying the points jersey on behalf of Corbyn Strong who owns it. Strong wearing the yellow jersey and Lchnerson goes over the top. He wants to make this tough as well. They want to deliver potentially a winning sprint stage as well to round out this amazing Arctic race of Norway. If it’s not going to be Alexander Kristoff, it might be someone like Rasmusilla. Why not? It could be one of their climbers. And halter is uh is very experienced. He’s in the break, but they want to be part of this as well. And Andreas Lignesund would also, yes, like to have a dig. And of course, there are um let’s not forget as far as the general classification, there are spaces um that would have to be filled and would want to be filled in the overall classification so you get the best results you possibly can. Corbyn Strong just following in on Tom Pitcock who’s following Lechnes at the moment. Lechnerson Pitcock strong. That almost sounds like a finishing line, doesn’t it? Well, let’s wait and see how it goes. 53.5 km to go. 50 seconds is the gap. Average pace today been very, very high. Uh we’ll get a uh a new tally on it for you in a short while, but it’s going to get even higher. 42 kilometers an hour, rock solid, but the last 50 are going to be at pace and I think we’re going to bust the fastest time of today. So, we’ll be home early. Looks like um we’ve had a fly that wants to come and join the fun here. I don’t think he’s having too much fun to be honest. That’ll be taking off the lens in a moment. But Kurt, it was that uh went over the top. He’s now at the back of this group saying I’m doing nothing. Um I’ve taken some King of the Mountains points and got a little bit of bonus. So, I’m going to hang around here cuz my team are coming over. So don’t ask me to do any work. Meanwhile, there’s a little bit of conversation going on and De Berini is saying, “Come on, work with me and uh we’ll uh we’ll share the day.” But what you also know is that if you shake hands with Ballerini, count your fingers afterwards, he’s basically trying to get somebody to work for him, not with him, so that he can use them and beat them later on. Clever stuff. If you’re a fast man with some lumps and bumps, that’s what you do. Uh you need to find some help. Oh, you can climb. Well, I’ll work with you if you like. Yeah. Yeah, we know. Uh 40 44 seconds now. And here we are. This is um Arca saying to themselves, “Well, I thought about squirreling off the front.” Coffee never short of a bit of ambition and going for it. We had Mizanoba a little bit earlier on that was very, very lively. Uh they do have some other cards to play here. So do some others. I think this breakaway is doomed ultimately. Uh we have what five chasers here. Then we have a group with Corbyn Strong himself numbering what 12 riders by the looks of it. Suddenly Unix mobility waking up to the possibilities of the day if this is going to be a sprint finish at the end. They’ve got plenty of cards to play. Lurland and indeed Diller can go quickly. So can Alexander Kristoff, but we believe he looked looked um missing a few resources. He might refind his legs. That happens during a day occasionally. There is Israel Premier Tech with their white shoulders and they are marking out right now. You’re not getting off the leash that easy is uh basically their um the the noise that they are issuing here. And it is coffidus that I’ve just upset the apple cart ever so slightly as we speak. Corbyn Strong just keeping it cool. He marked out um uh Q365 and Tom Pidcock when they started to make a noise. Uh but it’s got very selective here. Uh if that’s the pelatin, there are riders missing. So that means we’ve left a few behind and here they come on the climbs. And this will happen more and more and more. We’re going to have riders stretched out throughout much of the course. I don’t think anyone’s going to get lapped here. 13 kilometers is too much. Um so nobody’s going to get gated and have the shame of going back to the bus having been tagged in a relay race, if you will. But right now, uh, 48 seconds is kind of bridgeable. And if you hang out at a moment like this from the Pelaton, then somebody might come and join you. You could go and ride up the road and actually be part of a new fighting force. And the co-op boys have started to get lively. Here they come on the outside. Now, is that a King of the Mountains jersey wearer? Waiting to see. No, it’s one of his teammates. But nonetheless, uh, Ingabixon doesn’t want anyone making a steal of the King of the Mountains jersey. Let’s um let’s bring you up to date on that, shall we? Um Bak Sash um tell me how to say his name from uh uh did I say it back? Bakos. Oh, hey Bakos. There we are. Um so Bakos Morton Wang Bakos is up the road. Is it Bakos because of the S? Yes, I think it might be Bakos. There we are. So Baxus um so the man with ketchup running down his back you might say um is getting up helps me remember back um is going there kit ketchup let’s do let’s take care of that shall we um may well have a dig in for some mountains points so that means that team co-op reps will try and mark that out so if anyone moves from Norway uh to try and help uh Bourus then um he’s going to be at co-op and indeed Inger Brixson. There’s only one point in that competition at the top. Uh let’s see who else could be make a noise in that competition. Nobody. Uh so yeah, it’s between the pair of them. So one moves, the other moves even team-wise into Mar thinking about heading off up the road as well after the attack from Kofides. Bit of encouragement for that. Nice to see that. Um, everyone worked so hard at the beginning. It animated the day. Occasionally you can have riders going off up the road and the day gets very quiet. This has been busy busy. Yes, it’s been busy and it’s been rapid. The speed is high. It is. And I think it’s going to pick up even more. In fact, it’s still rising as we speak. We’ve now gone to 42.3 as an average. Knock back just uh slightly now. And uh with 48.8 kilm remaining, we are indeed about 400 meters from crossing the finish line. The director’s cars are coming through and they will be on it before you know it. So here we go. Crane as part of the development of uh this part of the world. They’re gently taking down some of the older buildings. By the way, there’s there’s not been any sort of uh destructive explosions in that regard. They’re taking their time, doing it properly. Meanwhile, at the line, what’s the time? We’ll look back at those who are pursuing in a few moments time. Metivio is for total energies that leads us over. Intermediate sprint comes shortly after, don’t forget, after the first pickup climb off the back of our start finish line that announces will be our finish line in the end. And here we come back into town. The uh Norwegian champion riding of course for Uno X Mobility will yet again just get himself up towards the front. Uh the hand signals are to indicate the narrowing of the road to riders who are following on. So they’re all as a collective group. They have a spirit. Nobody wants accidents for even your worst rivals. Nobody would wish that on anybody uh because the uh consequences uh with so little protective uh clothing. Of course, there were helmets, but everything else, if you hit the deck in this game, you are going to get hurt. Only two kinds of riders. Those who have been down and those who are going down. It’s a tough game. Israel Pep could get up. They want some pace because there’s climbs coming up. Don’t want anything silly happening. So, they increase the pace, which puts the pressure on um those around them not to go in the brake and spoil their fun of control at the moment. They still have it despite the fact that the gap’s now 55 seconds drifting out from uh as little as 28 I think we got down to as a modest margin. There’s nobody up here that’s a threat to the overall. Best place is uh um Halter Halter. He’s on the front at the moment. um doing a good job and doing some favors for UNOX Mobility as a team because with him up the road they’ve got an excuse not to help out and the temptation to do that is something that you need to park up. There we are. Kristoff still here and he’s giving out now. That’s good because when Alexander Kristoff gets angry he gets very good. So the Viking has um Yeah. Just imagine him taking a a big old spoonful of rackfish. Yes. Then the passion comes. Exactly. And look at this. We got a flyer and it’s it’s coming from Jacob around the outside and going for it. That looks like the style of Eddie Dumbar. We’ll get downstairs and have a look in a few moments time. No. Anybody else fancy to come and join the fun? This is a probing run right now. Now, David Deputo and Felix Angelhart in particular are very good in scenarios such as this, but they’ve got others that could really embed themselves at uh at certain moments. And you know what? If it’s um if it’s a a peak that you’re looking for, then you’ve got one right now. 56 seconds is the gap to the breakaway. But is this temptation going to tempt anybody? And it’s Lechnerson that’s decided that it’s going to chase into this. Um, fascinating that um, Tor Uso has um, was getting so verbal and is indeed our Irish friend that’s gone up the road, Eddie Dumbar. But he’s got very distinctive calf muscles. He looks like he’s smuggling frozen chickens. By the by that I mean he’s got very handsome calf muscles. A lot of power there. Um and uh yeah he has had grand tour wins himself. Dumbar and Lechnesund has got a draw response and guess what Aston saying we’re not having any of this. We don’t want some of our rivals to essentially start dominating the race. If Lakemund joins with Hala that’s a powerful fighting force. Oh that’s not good. Venzel Benzel I see you again. Uh, we don’t know. The Luxembourger to the side of the roads gets a uh a quick exchange and away he goes. He’s in the wrong gear. He’ll get there. Um, yeah, he he doesn’t want it that easy. He’s got no pace about him. But at that point, here we go. Starting to fracture as well as uh this group starts to probe. And um interesting that uh Ballerini showing his credentials by just kicking off there. Um I actually wonder now Ballerini is going to be getting quite uh upset by the pursuit. Uh because this means that it the favor will switch to um Scarrone or Case B whose numbers he’s accidentally wearing. I wonder if Caseball is wearing number 22, which is of course Ballerini’s numbers. There’s going to be a fine there for them. You’re not allowed to do that. Um the reason you’re not allowed to do it is because um you could use it to your advantage so that people don’t realize who’s gone off up the road and it gives you an opportunity to get into a breakaway because they think it’s somebody else. But in this case, Caseball and Deia Ballerini are so similar in terms of their credentials riding. Normally, Caseball leads out Ballerini or the other way round. They’re both very similar riders. So, there’s no advantage to this. It’s just a mistake. Simple as that. So, they What I’m trying to say is the Pelatin would be equally worried about Case Bowl as they would be about Ballerini. So, there’s no advantage. There you go. In fact, we believed it was case ball for a long time, but it’s actually Beridi. Meanwhile, back here, there’s not discussions going on, but there is a um uh an unspoken uh quizzing of each other, probing, you might say. Let’s see. As it stands, 19 seconds is the chase group. And it’s not bad, that chase group. It’s got a modest advantage over the pelatin which contains the jerseys either worn or old or owned I should say. Still we bounce and here’s the chase. It’s Lechnesund and Dunar. Here we go. And just waiting to see who is upon their case. beons pinging out here um on the to the side of the road. Um all safely delivered, you might say. Uh and so it is that uh the gap now is just 30 seconds to the leaders jersey. That’s no gap at all. Checks over shoulders here. And this is the pin being pulled as you can see by Ander Holder or under Holder. He’s having a look. Just beds in at the back. Um if a teammate needs him, he’s there to indeed deliver. Let’s see. It’s busy. 43.6 kilometers from home, 15 seconds uh to the chasing group. Uh the pelatin sitting now at just 29 seconds. Now this is the point where um in fact it’s a bit further out than I thought that Tom Pitcock would go for it. We were expecting him to have a dig with about two um two laps remaining. So at about 30 kilometers, we are far away from that. Still 30 uh 13ks from that point where he would have been comfortable going long. So being able to climb, sustain a gap and hold in obeyance the sprinters. But Corbyn Strong and his team are quite willing to set a pace here that will not allow anyone to go off up the road. And so it’s Corbyn Strong that’s sacrificing his team. You’d expect others to be doing the driving and trying to wear down Corbin Strong. This is Corbyn Strong saying, “I’m perfectly fine with this pace. And if you’re struggling, the race is mine.” Clever stuff. Yes. Very clever. Very strong, you know. Yeah. To have the engine after so many days racing. Somebody’s got to have it. And it looks like Corbyn Strong is on absolutely stellar form. Let’s see. Certainly looks that way. Only 24 seconds. Right now it’s 4 seconds before this front group will become 10 riders. That’s where it will fracture because there’ll be some riders here who see Lenasund and Eddie Dumbar and know that the game is up and so the drinks are going in. This is not driving racing at the moment. They’re on a downhill section and they’re just taking on a bit of sustenance. Uh right now just rolling off the front is Ballerini. 24 seconds is the gap. 23 now and it’s all going to come together. 22 seconds the gap now back to our uh our chasing pelatin and this is getting as lively as you like now then what’s the strategy going to be at the end of today let’s wait and see uh it looks like this is all coming together. Lechnus’s sorry halters on the blower saying that life and and indeed the remainder of the day is uh is indeed still to be fought for. Loving it. 40 just shy of 41 km to go and uh we have a uh a margin of just 16 seconds. So this is all going to collectivize and indeed then we will run for the line. Who’s going to win today? Now, we have absolutely no idea, but we’ve got, I guess, a good clue that Corbyn Strong is racing brilliantly. So, it’s time then for us to come up to the press fun yet again. 900 meters to go until we get to the top of that and then of course time is beginning to run out for everybody. We’ll be back up here on two more occasions, don’t forget. So, two full laps remaining and two laps out was where we suspected that indeed uh we would be driving into this gap with Tom Bidcock on the escape. He’s not been allowed to do so now. He’s bringing himself up as we speak. Let’s wait and see. We remind you that we have been here before. Let’s see how we go with 12 seconds of the day. 12 seconds indeed this day is the gap. It’s Israel that are doing the driving, trying to get themselves uh across to this group. In fact, almost catching them by accident, I think you might say. Two riders for Jacob up the road. That is a handy scenario to be in. KMO’s being joined by Eddie Dumbar. So, their battle plan has been put up on the table, but there’ll be others as well that would like to join that frey. Dumbar and Kilos a good pairing. Hane’s there. Uriati of course working ultimately we believe for Pal Miguel but I haven’t seen him since he hit the deck earlier on might have knocked the stuffing out of him not quite sure 40ks remaining it’s a tenuous gap as we come up to the peak yet again two more laps to be dealt with looking at the head of the race rocking and rolling all over the front of the bike it does even up ever so slightly and here it comes this is the action point Shelmo wants to be involved Riley Sheen is uh is up here. So is Corbin Strong and he’s staying with Riley Sheen who wants to put yet more hurt on. So the man in the young riders jersey, teammate of Corbyn Strong, says get on my wheel. Let’s go. Where’s Bitcock? That’s the question. This was supposed to be the moment he went on the attack. Let’s see if he’s downstairs and doing exactly that at the front of this group. There he is. Has a look back. Can’t shake off Riley Sheen at all. Pitcock driving home trying to do so. And it’s he that’s going to kill this off. Can he shake strong off bigot got a gap? It’s about a bike length and and a wheel about that’s all he’s managed to to to put on the anvil here as he hits it with that hammer. Let’s see. Uh they make some exchanges and of course it had to be Bjorn K as well who kicks on. He wants to be part of the uh the story of the end of the day. Pitcock tried it. This was basically where he was going to try and thrive, but couldn’t shake off Corbyn Strong, who absolutely stuck with him, but he’ll try again. You can be absolutely sure of that. Alexander Kristoff is here. It’s not going to be his day today, I’m afraid. If he’s struggling now, he’ll certainly be struggling a little bit later and he looks uh like there is something missing today. So, that means that the favors hand over for Unex Mobility. I think Andreas Lechman would like to bring the national jersey home. He’s done a lot of work today. He’s in the uh he’s in the the pointy position right now. Looks back, it’s teammate Halter is off the front. Meanwhile, Edar decides that he might kick on. In fact, it’s Dumbar’s teammate at the moment who’s just kicked a little bit more to get himself extricated. And we’ve got some chops and changes here. Uh they did try it. Um Don Pitcock did have a dig but could not make account of it I’m afraid. This is great. Lenerson to be up towards the front. Dunar as well. There’s a real mix of different riders. And here that is Pitcock. He’s now driving the race on the Red Bull helmet comes to the front. Has a check over his shoulder. Can’t see Corman strong but he’s not that far away. Pitcock now has to drive this home. Now it’s a long way out. I did say with two laps remaining he had a good chance of making this stick but it’s his only hope is to make it as hard as he possibly can. So he’s going to take that that climb twice again. Halter Kurt and Lechner it was that went over the top last time by but it is pit kilometers remaining. Tom Pitcock with a big roll of the dice here. Uh comes over that little double peak, you might say. One for the sprint, one for the K and just trying to fly away with it. Can’t do so. Others coming now into the fray. uh want to very much be part of it. Now, if you’ve had a long old day out front, this is a troubling time for you. Uh those who’ve been in the break want to show what they’ve got and those who are bridging over would like to come and join the fun. Likewise, 37.4 km from home surely shying left and right here just riding the chicanees as they try to deliver something special. Can we get a runaway here? It’s happened in the past. Corbyn Strong is marking out and he’s done a great job. He’s bottom of your screen as we speak by the looks of things. Can’t quite see it from this distance. We’ll get uh confirmation on that in a few moments time. But they scream around this lefthander and still keep the pressure on. That in third wheel is Tom Pitcock. Not that far behind is Corbyn Strong. Don’t forget the gap between the pair of them is 6 seconds only. This is frantic stuff with still two full laps remaining and two more crests of that climb to come. Uh Pitcock’s only choice was to go long and shake off strong, which he’s failed to do. That’s strong leading this group of now six or seven riders just in obeyance. Tries to drift over now does so and he’s found Bitcock. Now Pitcock’s cards are on the table. He’s actually shown his hand. So now I guess you might say bets are off. Everybody knows what Pitcock is going to do. He’s going to have to attack when it comes to the climbs. So how do you deal with that? Sometimes the best form of defense is attack. And guess what? That’s precisely what we’re seeing right now. Riley Sheen’s getting involved. The man who wears the young riders classification lead. He wants to be maybe a foil up the road. So, he’s just kicking on a bit here. And this is about just keeping the pressure on the likes of Bitcock and trying to ease the pressure on Corbyn Strong. Double check over shoulders here as you can see. And the battle is now settled just for a short while. This won’t last long. It won’t last long. Somebody else is going to pick up the cudgel and start issuing blows on absolutely everybody. There’s a stage win up for grabs. Don’t forget apart from anything else as well as that general classification battle which we are royally looking forward to enjoying. Well, what what have you got? It’s now if you got something if you think you can go along if you’ve got some endurance about you then absolutely go for it. As far as Flanders Belwis are concerned, well I’ve been talking about Hersa as far as that team is concerned for a long long time during this race. He’s a six-day rider, which means he has phenomenal endurance. He’s a quick man as well. He can sprint. And look at this fold over. That’s Strong again, just keeping an eye on those around him. Don’t be surprised if Strong himself goes on the attack. That would be something that I think he would possibly keep back if he’s got any energy levels left for the last climb because when it comes to a sprint, he’ll be able to deliver. How many teammates he’ll have around him by the end is anybody’s guess. Back downstairs here and look what’s happened to the palatin. It’s absolutely shredded. There are riders all over the place at the moment. This is a third chasing group by the looks of things and I’m trying to see who’s on board it. Meanwhile, there’s a little bit of settlement out front. This is Tom Pitcock coming over. And look who’s directly behind Tom Pitcock. Pick in the blue jersey there. You can see the golden jersey just coming over to him with a quartet of riders. And it’s starting to thin down in terms of teammates and support as it stands. This from this group could be where we find the day’s winner. It’s certainly where we’re going to find our race winner. But in what scenario? Every single blow that’s been issued by Tom Pitcock has been taken. It’s almost like rope dope, as Muhammad Ali used to say. Sometimes he’d just rest his hands on an opposing uh boxer and let them punch him in the stomach. But he was had such belief in his own core strength, he let them wear themselves down and then he’d whiff about. So that’s rope dope in case you were wondering because basically just lent on the ropes and let them wear themselves down. And I’m just wondering in that sporting analogy whether we’ve got something similar going on here that in fact Corbin Strong is just marking out letting everyone else issue the blows. They’re tiring themselves out each time they do it. He’s got enough protection, enough power on board to actually bring it home at the end of the day. But can he get there? A big train of talent we’re looking at right now. And this is a very exceptional now breakaway group. I guess you might say it’s a breakaway that contains the favorites. There’s an attempt by a much bigger group that will call the pelatons to try and tag back onto this. Maybe some teammates that could be required a little bit later on. But if this quality group that we’re looking at right now decides to kick on and they’ve got the strength to do it, they might actually not only contend for the stage itself, but for the title as well. Uh the next sprint in terms of this is interesting because there’s three two and one bonus seconds up for grabs. And if Corbyn Strong himself gets up for this intermediate sprint, he’s going to extend the lead overall to Tom Pitcock. Tom Pidcock might try and steal 3 seconds. Tom Pitcock, cuz the sprint is on a climb, is probably better better placed to take 3 seconds here, which would cut the gap overall to just 3 seconds. Let’s see what happens. Let’s see if anyone else wants to do it. Tom Pitcock looks over his shoulder. He’s got a teammate with him, which is a blessing, I guess. He’s uh he’s on the nose right now. Uh, Pickock’s on the radio, so his strategy is being formed on the fly. There’s the teammate, uh, one of the teammates of course of Corbyn, uh, Corbyn Strong himself. That’s Riley Shears the Young Riders classification jersey. He’s getting a free ride over to the front group where we find Corbyn Strong. Corbyn Strong’s there. Pace has been picked up. Now then, who’s going to get these bonus seconds? In fact, they’re all going to get hoovered up by the looks of things. But Corbyn Strong looks like he fancies it. Corbyn Strong is going to come to the start finish line. This is not the sprint line. Don’t forget. He’s laid up a little bit, which means he’s given himself some rush room into an arrow gap to four riders in front of him. They’re pushing a big hole in the air at the moment. They’ve drifted off. He’s laid up, which means he’s giving himself two, three meters to rush into, come around them, and steal those three seconds. Let’s see if he does it. It’d be great to see the uh the upfront pictures at the moment because we’re uh we got a sprint uh very very soon to be upon our screens and it’s all just recoagulated as you can see. Flyer coming in right now and this is from team picnic postnel and look at the faces. They mean business here. There’s Corby Strong. How relaxed and predator-like does he look? And Pitcock’s not even mouth breathing for goodness sake. How do they do it? This is fabulous. Big turn coming in here. We’ve got a uh an intermediate spread to be dealt with. We’ve got the climbs as well. Don’t forget what a day to to have racing. The intermediate spread. Three bonus seconds coming up with 29ks to go. They’re kicking up now. Here comes Corbin Strong. Pitcock’s here. Sure must surely be here as well. Can’t see him at the moment. He’s a little guy, but generates an awful lot of power. He’s bottom of your screen right now. So Corbyn Strong is about 10 15 riders up ahead of Tom Bitco. If Corbyn Strong gets up for any kind of seconds at this sprint, it’s going to be a big statement as far as the overall is concerned. Even a handful of seconds mean a lot to him quite clearly. Let’s see if he gets there. We got about 1100 meters to go before we actually get to the intermediate sprint point uh here at Clom. And then we’ll we’ll we’ll continue and go up to our mountain for the penultimate time. Uh the remaining intermediate sprints all count for 32 and one bonus seconds. Two riders have gone up the road which means that there’s only one second left upon the road and Tom Pitcock fancies it. He’s just coming up. He’s on the back wheel of Lechund at the moment stalking him. Corbyn Strong knows that. Drifts over with the yellow jersey to that side of the road. Pitcock still standing proud at the moment and Corbyn Strong is still there. Wow, what a day of racing we have got here. This is absolutely amazing. Picnic post now have displayed an awful lot of fortitude. Likewise, XDS Astana, they hope to get an awful lot more out of this race than they had thought possible. There’s Pitcock. He’s going for it now. Then he tries to stretch his legs on the climb. He has to do it. He’s got no other choice. He has to keep going. He’s got Corbyn Strong absolutely attached to him like a tow rope at the moment. This will be 32 and one bonus seconds. Don’t forget. And this is Pitcock wanting them. Oh, on the throw. What an intermediate sprint that was. And I’ve got a feeling that Strong beat Pitcock on the line. We shall wait and see. That was amazing. And Pitcock knows it. Shoulders go down and Corbyn Strong kicks on. What a statement. Let’s have a look. Overhead shot to give us a better look at it. Don’t forget 3 2 1 seconds at the line. Here comes Corbyn Strong. Is he going to beat Bid to the line? Oh, I think he does so, which means he gets an extra second of advantage. So, he pushes up his overall advantage to 7 seconds. He may even have won that. I don’t think he did. I think he came second and picked up two seconds. We’ll get confirmation in a few moments time once the commissers have a look at the Uber slow-mo uh as they came to the line. But what an exciting day this is proving to be. My goodness. Let’s have a look. Right, so it was two and one bonus seconds and I believe the two went to strong. So he adds a second to his overall classification advantage and has 7 seconds now over Pitcock. That clearly had a visible physical impact emotional impact on Pitcock. The result of that Strong looks back. This is teasing he’s doing right now. Having a look in the face of Pitcock. Maybe maybe he’s being slightly kinder and looking into the face of Riley Shear and said, “Come on, let’s do that again. This is fun.” Boy, oh boy, is it. Sitting alongside me is Sebastian Hendrixon of the Norwegian Olympic Committee. What a day you’ve chosen to come into the commentary position. Yes, it has been amazing. It’s intense truly Caron to sit here with you and to see this and Corbin seems very strong and my belief is still that he will take this home now. Well, it looks like a very good prediction. It could be that that’s almost honors even between Strong and Pitcock. And if Pitcock now believes that he can’t shake Strong in the climbs, he’s got another couple of uh he’s got another go at it. I should say one more. Um so let’s wait and see. He’s got a a well it’s kind of three climbs. He’s got two climbs proper for K plus an intermediate sprint which as you’ve seen is on a spike as well. It’s it’s an unkind course to be chasing time if you’ve actually got that advantage. Sometimes it gives you the confidence to just hold on to what you’ve got. What an amazing day of racing we have. And it is far from over. We still got 28.6 km to go. I’m I’m just hoping that my larynx holds on. Don’t worry about me. This evening, I’ll be putting it in a little hammock to have a rest. I have to get to the end of a race and people start saying, “Come on. Um, let let let’s go party and start shouting.” And uh the the answer is I I I can’t possibly do that. I’ve got nothing left. So, yeah, I often go quiet. I know it’s hard to believe, but yes, it’s hard to believe, Carlton, but after this day, I will also go quiet. And I’m I’m never quiet. Here we go. Taking on sustenance. A gel doesn’t want it. Just wants some uh some water. And some of these some of this water might actually get sprayed down the back. It’s not an overly hot day. And it just shows you as well. Is this Charges going up? Let’s have a look. We’ll get this in a moment. But I believe it is. Anton Charmik came in as amongst the sort of secondary favorites, I guess you might say, within this race behind the absolute uber favorite at the beginning of it. Tom Pitcock. Uh, Corbin Strong I’d actually got in the uh not amongst the absolute favorites, but Charmig was certainly one of those. Scarrone likewise. Scaroni’s got more of a kick on him when we come to the sprint scenario than in does than indeed does Charmig. And here we are. Oh, that’s a point. Apparently, Pitcock has been given the two seconds ahead of Strong. Well, my eyes said otherwise. I wouldn’t be a commisser for anything, but that means the gap in the GC is 5 seconds. Whoa, that was a big call. That was a big call. And that he will be getting that through on the radio on his earpiece. Will Tom Pitcock, you beat Corbyn Strong at that last sprint, which means if the two of them are going headto-head at the next one, he can find another second and make it even closer. It’s 5 seconds now. If we get a scenario, and we did talk about this as a dream scenario of Pitcock crossing the line and gets 10 seconds, he will have four more bonus seconds at the finish line than indeed Corbyn Strong. Here he is. He was indeed second place. Crucially, he did beat Corbin Strong for the time bonuses. That says 6 seconds. That was the beginning of the day. It’s now five seconds. Goodness me, what a day. 27.2 2 kilometers until we get home. As it stands at the moment, we have honors even, I guess you might say. We’ve had lots of psychological scenarios going on, but as we approach what, 5:20 local time, we still have 27 km to go. Um, you know what we’re talking about, the pace of the day, it has indeed increased yet again. And we’re nudging up towards 43 km/ hour. Here’s Corin strong now. It didn’t go his way. I thought it had. I thought the psychological advantage would have come his way. Tom Pitcock is going to take something from that. You know your sports psychology as uh as well as I do Sebastian and that mean makes a big difference. That news into his headphones will help. Yes, it will give him a boost and it’s a crucial point in the race to have that boost. But Corbin Strong perhaps he just uh lies back and has a strategy. Let’s see 73 km an hour. It’s almost automatically uh breeds yet more pace into the day. We lose pace of course when we climb, but they’ve been taken as sprints at the moment. And within this collective group, we have so much talent. This is the pelin. Where’s everybody else? I mean the brutality of this day has I mean this place we are playing with today uh Trumza it was always a hard place to eke out any life and it’s almost reflected in in the way that this race is being ridden today. It’s a worthy finale for us. Yes. And with this course this time and this year it’s even more brutal. Tom Pitcock looks at the camera as if to say, “Get that thing away from me. I need all my focus.” And that’s him at the back here shaking his hands out. Oh, he shook his head then. Now then, has he played his main card and didn’t get the advantage he wants, if he can save himself, so he’s stay at the back to try and get as much arrow assist as he can, he will attack again because he’s got no other choice. You either bail out or you attack. You either accept second position overall or you think I’m going to give it another I’m going to give it another go. And knowing Tom Pitcock as we do, he will have another go. Everyone knows it though. What a race we’ve got here and how it has been brilliant in the past. To Uso thought he was going to take the day. Head went down because Alexander Kristoff came across the line and nicked it from him. That was 2014. Oh, don’t count your chickens ever. Dylan Turns took the bow brilliantly so in 2017 continued his dominance by riding home alone with 11 seconds to three pursuers. That was Shhatu and Svener Beastro. And then in 2021 it was Marcus Holgard who rode home alone with two seconds to a pelatin that was sprinting in. They were led home by none other than Alexander Kristoff ahead of Brian Kar proving that breakaways can make the difference. Well, what about today? It’s another page in the fabulous history of Trumso. We’ve had great racing in the past and this has not disappointed today. It has flown by. Yes, it’s flown by and when with the sportmans that we have seen today, it’s been amazing and we are looking forward to hosting Arch Grace next time and to have more races like this in our city. Can’t wait. Can’t wait. Ah, now then um who’s got what it takes to win the date? Will there be a steal? Tom Pitcott’s going to go again. Um he’s got of course more to steal than anybody else. But um as with that comes well as with responsibility comes pressure and the Red Bull helmet, Red Bull sponsored helmet is bouncing at the back at as we speak. There he is making his way up number 51 in the blue jersey. He just uh finds his way through Corbin Strong. He’s about 10 riders in front of him at the moment. That’s his nemesis. He needs to come through. There’s no bonus seconds on this climb, don’t forget, but it is an attack point. I think that Bitcock, if he’s got the legs at the moment, don’t forget he’s only just come out of the uh European mountain bike championships, which he won. So, he comes to this race with a lot on his plate as Burgos light it up. This is Decala, I believe, just shouldering the um uh the vegetation here. Well, we saw, of course, when Hogard rode home that um it can offer up favors to the brave and away he goes. Now, there’s a lot of teammates of indeed both uh Tom Pitcock and uh and Corbyn Strong still within that group, so they’re not going to do the chase. So, who’s it left down to? That’s the question. It’s going to have to be a team that well just looking for a stage win. The problem is it’s been so brutal this day so far. That’s Dylan Turns by the way, not coming over now, but this is his teammate. Turns is about wheel six. He’s back here bottom of your screen. That’s Turns who’s won into uh uh into Trumzo before. So having a teammate up the road could indeed help as a foil. Confidence desperate for points and the reason for points is they are in a precarious position in the UCI championship which means they could fall out of the top draw and be relegated essentially. And when that happens sometimes it it gets more difficult to get yourself things like sponsorship and continue. Um hoping that doesn’t happen to Cobus because they’re they’re a lovely team, a really good bunch of guys as well, good organization, been around a long time, but they find themselves having had a whole series of bad luck and what have you. And this is a relegation year. They don’t come around every year, every three. So this means that need this day, which is why I was telling everyone who asked that Dylan Turns is going to have a big dig today. It’s his teammate Ordani who’s gone off the road. He’s a good man to have there. He’s a sprinter, but Dylan Turns has got a bit of everything, including the ability to climb. Also to time trial. Doesn’t have that much of a kick on him. If it was going to be points and believed he could win, then it would be that Dylan Turns was doing this job and would stay in the back. Aldi thinks there are faster men here for him which means that Dylan Turns is going to have to take his own luck when his own opportunities when they present them to him. Now I don’t think he’s got a teammate around him that’s in wheel three at the moment. This is his teammate that’s up the road Aldani with the car who started this move from Burgus Burpolet BH. 10 seconds only is what they’ve got. So that’s still um in the zone that turns could take some help. If anyone else attacks this group and tries to get a stage win, turns can ride their wheels and then try and TT home. That’s what he’ll be thinking. He’s in wheel in the chase. He’s in wheel two. So wheel four as we look at it uh right now. So still a lot of strategy. Um, I mean, teams, they’ve put so much on the table already, but when it gets to this pointy end of the day, it’s kind of in full view. There are no longer any secrets. We kind of know what you’ve got to do. You have no choice other than to fully invest in the day as Dylan turns in wheel three as we look at right now. And so, it’s once again Israel Premier that have some belief that they can possibly bring this one over and home. Let’s see. 21.5. It’s only 11 seconds back to this chase group as we speak. Still following the yellow arrows. 21.2 km from high. It is 11 seconds is the gap. Just under 21 uh kilometers remaining. 11 seconds only is the gap. Alani Deal Deal also up the road here and they’ve got a gap. Now this can prove to be something of a challenge for those who are chasing at moments like this because there’s general classification to think about. teammates of those who of course are looking for a good position overall mixed in with teams that would actually quite like a stage win today. If the teams who want a stage win start to peel off, they could be ridden. It could come to nothing because the GC men will kind of follow them and use them as a foil for to save some energy. Right now, we’re looking at a falank of what 25 28 riders chasing down and Dakal who have 15 seconds now. Now this there is a snapping point on days like this and it gets to be about 30 seconds and at that point a breakaway starts to believe that it can hold everyone in obeyance because there’s too much effort to get over that you need at the end of the line. Everyone’s tired, so teams hold back a bit and sometimes get it wrong. And as we saw when the sprint finished behind Marcus Hogard, he only had two seconds advantage at the line. He was up the road in a breakaway. In a scenario like this, that’s now 21 seconds, it can happen that the pursuit get it wrong. So all those for wanting a stage win because that’s all that’s left for them to have, they could mess it up by allowing two riders that maybe they haven’t given enough respect to go up the road that could then deliver. As far as Alani is concerned, hills fine sprinting not too bad. Took a state in the Jurro ditalia in 2022. Um finishing in front of uh Rotor who was in a break with I remember it. He leaner was up there as well. Boammer led in the rest of the break before Vendram amongst the favorites came home a minute and 44 down. It shows you how wrong it can get in terms of predictions. And sometimes your best strategy is to just mark everything down. But nobody’s got the legs to do that, especially at the end of a tough race. Every day has been. And this finale has got so many climbs. Even the sprint is on a climb. The intermediate sprint for goodness sake. That’s nearly cruel. Oh well, we wish these guys the best to actually sail try and sail home. Dal is only 21 years of age from Castillion. Um but he was fourth in the uh the Atorias race that is along the top of Spain and that’s lumpy old mountains pretty much um a parkour that mirrors what we’ve got here. So lots of rises and falls that race. So yeah, he’s used to climbing. He’s got a bit of a kick on him as well. He’s um got a bit of a turn of pace about him in time triing. Uh likewise never really fully tested in that regard, but he’s got a time trial now, but he’s got company in Aldani. Between the pair of them, I’d probably favor Alani, but they might have what it takes. But that depends upon the chase. Oh, I’m almost breathless here. Yes, the same for me. And now it will only become more intense. It will because we still got two big climbs to be taken. Um we of course we have dealt with one climb for the intermediate sprinter bonus seconds and that’s going to be very busy. Don’t forget still one second on the road to be picked up behind these two guys. So if let’s say Corbin Strong comes up for that one, it’ll be with Pitcock at the end. If it comes for a Flatland attempted finale, Corbyn Strong has to be the favorite. and you may well indeed win the packet of crisps at the end of the day, which is our private wager. Let’s wait to see. I love smash it, by the way. I think that’s what it’s called. The little sort of salty cones which are dipped in chocolate. It’s an amazing thing. Oh, yes. Carton, that’s amazing. And you you can actually not eat only one. It’s addictive. Exactly. Is it Are they called Smashing? Yeah. Yeah. They’re amazing. I I never Who’d have thought um only here in in in Norway? Let’s take a perfectly serviceable uh salted cone and dip it in chocolate. Anyway, they did and I’m glad they did. Uh 17.5 km from home, 16 seconds and once you start looking back, you’re done for. Um that is not fully committed. They don’t trust themselves and this is the reason why. Here’s the pursuit. And guess what? Israel Premier Techch still keeping the hurt on. And this is for Corbyn Strong. Just tucked in there in wheel two of the pursuit is Dylan Turns who’s won before into Tumza. At the back also with some belief is Yurus Delva. Now he hasn’t done too much climbing yet and he’s a good climber for Total Energies. He’s in the white at the back and I believe that he might also be riding with Pier who looked very secondhand a little bit earlier on today. um actually a lot of it earlier on today. It was about 50ks to go. He he didn’t look like he was interested in the day, but that’s Paw all over. You never know quite how to read him. He’d be a great poker player. Um will he be on? Will he go all in with nothing in his hand? Let’s wait and see. 16.6 km to go then. And this is the crossing of the finish line. We await for the penultimate time, which means that somebody is going to be ringing a bell uh to announce to everyone we’ve got one lap remaining. So that will be two zones of significance before we even get to the finish line. That will be an intermediate sprint, which of course counts for three bonus seconds, two and one. Uh and then a a a climb, the big climbing test at preset that will bring us back down to our big finale. Only 15 seconds holding. There we are. Do you know you hold a bell up like that and it weighs about 5 kilos and you’re busy ringing it and if there’s a long string of riders you got to ring it upon you get tired. Yes, it seems heavy. It looks heavy. And here we go. Who can lighten the load for anybody? Leund is clearly going to have a go today. That’s nice. Alexander Christo’s not here. It might be Landilla if indeed they’re still here. I’m not sure they are. I’ll uh I’ll give you an update when I get it. But meanwhile, there are others that have to be told home here. It’s great. 16 seconds only. Can you imagine it being this uh close with just 15.6 km remaining? It’s a proper crescendo to this race. And they’re out of the saddle because we are climbing. We’re out of uh the harbor side. And that means we have to go up some hills because they they shroud the town here, offer it up protection from the winds from certain directions, give a safe harbor, still water or calm water after you come in from the high seas which can be so torturous over centuries. Claimed of course uh uh many lives and uh and many ambitions and I guess many businesses as well. Right now the business of the day is dealing with inclines and I’m inclined to think that this is getting brutal and a breakaway only 8 seconds margin and they’ve been eaten into. I think Aston want a stage win and they are getting more than desperate for it. They had Bellerini up the road. Will Case Bull be allowed to to stretch his legs? Will indeed the right numbers cross the line all be it on the wrong bike? Let’s see. Here we go. Rock and roll. Uh well, we did say that Total Energies were mustering to to do something. They were at the back and guess what? They’ve come up to the four right now. Aldan is like, “Where did you come from? Weren’t you wearing a plum jersey?” No, that guy’s gone back. Here we go. This is the satellite rise that I was telling you about that if you’ve got um any ambition of taking a stage today, the only way you’re going to deny the fast men who are still within this group is to go for it. Tom Pitcock would have been uh doesn’t need telling that that’s precisely what’s got to happen. Q365 want to kill off this break because they want Tom Pitcock to be teed up. The problem is that Q365 with the double white shoulders here are also bringing up Corbyn Strong. Strong is two riders ahead of Tom Pitcock as it stands at the moment. So that chase group, if you just take the T chase group on the nose is Pitcock teammate. Then comes indeed Yuno X. Just behind is the yellow leaders jersey. Uh there’s um there’s three and two bonus seconds just about to head off uh and up the road to take this intermediate sprint. Still got a couple of kilometers to go before we get there. And others now are thinking, well, if I get through the intermediate sprint, maybe I can carry on. And one of those is none other than Dylan Turns. He looks like he’s laboring ever so slightly. He’ll never win a sprint against Corbyn Strong. So he’s got to go for it as well. He’s got a teammate up ahead of him in Ali, but turns wants to turn the clock back to 2017. That was 9 years ago or eight years ago. You do the math. Eight years ago. And uh it but it’s being denied him. This is the availability of bonus seconds disappearing up the road turns comes through uh cuts the apex of the corner just goes down into this little dish we have before we get to the intermediate sprint which uh which comes at the top with 13 kilometers to go. We have 1,200 m then before we get to that point and Corbyn Strong I mean cue the jaws music. Um, you may as well because the shark is coming and he he’s just eating everybody up including poor old Dylan Turns who thought about having a go. Not going to happen. Not for turns. That’s Alani back in and turns is on the back of this group right now. A more rangy figure. And the look backs just continue. Valer’s effort at going up the road has come to n I’m afraid. And they’re now skirmishing and looking at each other. There’s always opportunities and this serves Corbyn strong. You’re thinking, why is he not going for this? Um Riley Riley Sheen is going for it because he’s hoovering up seconds. These are seconds that aren’t available to Tom Pitcock. Corbin Strong just has to watch uh Pitcock. When Pitcock moves, Strong moves. And right now it looks like well it’s Pitcock looks like he’s bridged over here. Um or is he on the back wheel of uh of Corbyn Strong? I’m just waiting to see. They’re going to come back together. Corbyn Strong himself is busy. Where’s the blue jersey? I think that might be uh that might be it up front. Oh no, this is a satellite rider going off for Q365. It’s one of teammates. So, he’s going to take the three bonus seconds, which would be 3 seconds denied to Strong. They’re all playing each other off. In fact, is actually tucked in here. So is Corbyn Strong. So, the three seconds should disappear to one of Pitcock’s teammates. Here comes Pitcock round the outside now then. Can he possibly get round sheen who’s there? That’s Pitcock skirmishing. He’s a long cut side Corbyn Strong. They’re talking to each other. They are talking to each other. That’s amazing. That may well be them saying, “Look, should we just do it at the finish? Is this a bit silly?” So, give themselves a chance of going head-to-head at the line. I think that’s what that is. Let’s wait and see. They’re not attacking each other just for now, that’s for sure. And there was words that pass between them. That’s amazing. 12.4 km from home. 5 seconds the gap to um Ursw Charger here. Can he make it home? This is Marcel Capuri. Well, um, Cap Ruby was off the road a little bit earlier on, and he’s actually been very busy today in the service of, uh, Tom Pitcock, and all credit to him for doing this. He might make a steal of the stage. Um, I’m not quite sure who that serves. And it looks like the intermediate sprint points, which we are just witnessing now, are going to disappear um, up the roads. In fact, we’ve uh we’ve already had the intermediate sprint. So, that’s exactly what has happened if that ticker is correct. Lots of looking over shoulders at the moment and Cambouia has gone. He’s shot the coupe. So, uh that conversation we Oh, goodness me. What was that about? Well, he didn’t like something. I think he wanted to tee himself up for this red zone which we were very worried about. This was that that pinch point. realized he was on the wrong side of the road and just slew the bike over. Thankfully, the road surface is dry 11.6 kilometers from home and he’s on a solo run for for glory at the moment. And yes, the intermediate sprint has indeed been hoovered up. Neither of our principles took bonus seconds. So, as a result, we’re heading into town. Should we get this done? We have one more climb. 7.7 kilometers from home and he’s on it now. Head of the race is Camp Ruby and doing a good job. What about the chase? And here we go. Long, high, wide, and handsome round the outside. I believe that’s Lour this time as Verair did the first one. The Tour slingshots himself around the outside and goes for it. I believe that’s him. We’ll wait and see in a few moments time, but that’s a massive advantage. And this is a quality rider who could deliver this. This is a steel attempt that could come very good. In fact, it’s it’s declared as verier again. Goodness me. Good work. In fact, the tour in that case, I don’t think is here. Goodness me, what a day. This man, well, get yourself a stage winner. There’s nothing else to have. But unfortunately with uh with Matio Verair on his case, he’s got some climbing legs in in Versier, but he’s also a quick man. He normally acts as a lead out along with Laru who crashed um and indeed working normally for Jason Tesson. These climbs would have been too much for uh for Tesson, but not for their share. 17 seconds, that’s a big gap. Now then, if there are four seconds left on the road, if Tom Bidcock beats Corbyn Strong at the line behind two other riders, he gets 4 seconds. As it stands, he has a deficit of 5 seconds, which means he’ll lose the race by 1 second if they come home together. But Tom Pitcock picks up the four minus seconds. You get the idea. 10 six and four at the finish line. There’s a lot to think about. Uh meanwhile, still at it. 14 seconds and the Hoardings are being beaten here and they’re jimmying them up. Cap Ruby. Well, I don’t know. Let’s wait and see, shall we? Cam Ruby’s gone for it. Six seconds back to Verier. Seven now. Camp Ruby has flown the coupe. 16 seconds only though and he’s still got to do the climb and it starts after this turn. Be scared on behalf of him. So he’s going to turn up to the mountains. It’s not something you’d normally do. Verly flying. He’s been lively. This will be great. He’ll do a track a tracky’s check sometimes under your arms, sometimes between your legs if you’re in a ropes. Oh, double checked again. You know, he is not the best bike handler. I’ve seen him slew the bike from one side of the road to the next. I mean, he stayed upright, so that’s good enough, I guess you might say. But that’s energy lost and nerves can enter the fray. Meanwhile, Riley She is in the young riders classification who’s pushing on and Corbyn Strong’s asked for this pace. That’s because I think he believes he’s got the beating of Tom Pitcock if it is tough. Looking back down trying to find Tom Pickcock amongst this group and he’s a long way off. He’s about four riders from the back. Whoa. Again, he’s absolutely on the ragged edge. I’ve got to say that that motorcycle stopped at precisely the wrong point within the turn. That was a corner he would have liked. Whoa. Um I mean I understand it was trying to be safe, but uh yeah, it just didn’t work out for everybody. You can’t get it right all the time. It’s been exceptional coverage, by the way. We’ve absolutely loved it in this race. Um, the pictures that have been brought to you have been outstanding. It’s not always about the geography. You got to you got to have equipment there to deliver visually. Right now, Verair is again another tracky’s check under his arm. Unless he was on the blower. I don’t think he was. Uh, just to uh to check on what the gap is. Fair share at 7 seconds. And I’m just counting it right now. Back to this group. They’re a further 5 seconds behind. I think he’s done for. Strong. Looks amazing. Well, of course, at a beginning of a day, we we had an accounting really. And um of course, our our form expert is here, Sebastian Hindixon, and he said um Gourmet is going to win in the leaders jersey. And it looks like you might be right. Yes, it looks so he looks still very strong. No, you know, I have a good colleague on my left side and I love to see sports. So, but he looks very firm and good yet. Dylan Turns can’t sprint, but he can climb and he’s tried to come to the front here. He got out the saddle. He stabbed on the pedals a bit and then thought better of it. He’s going to have another go, but so are others who are here and I believe Shutter is here for Ara B&B Hotels. That’s the the youngster for um for Arca. He might have a Dixie as well. Let’s see see if we can pick him up. And there he is. Had to be. Wow. They’re all over the front of the bike. Those that would want to get something out of the day. That is Dylan Turns. He’s kicked off here with um on his back wheel Corbyn Strong himself. Turns looks like um looks like a praying mantis. very uh very lean man indeed. Um almost like a javelin he is um from top to tail. There he is in third wheel. Corbyn Strong just easing off at the moment if it’s a sprint scenario. And there’s in fifth wheel is indeed Tom Pitcock. He’s come up to join the party. This is fantastic. What a way to end this race. There’s just going to be less than a a handful of fingers uh in terms of seconds to to to count between our winner uh and indeed second place here. And that’s precisely what you want. Still undecided and they’re rolling with the punches and constantly issuing more. And has another go here. You can’t keep a good man down. And well, let’s wait and see how this one pans out at the end of the day. And it is Strong that just sails in onto the the back wheel. Is it Shamik? I think it is. Pitcock. Um, again, I don’t know whether there’s words exchanging between Pitcock here in the blue with the Red Bull helmet and indeed Corbin Strong. And it looked like we’re going to get ourselves a sprint finale. This is an absolutely magnificent way to finish this race off. Look at it. We’re going to have a bunch sprint. Can you believe it? Everything’s been neutralized. Goodness me. We have dealt with the climb. We’re over the top. So, it’s how you strategize your end game. And guess what? Eddie Dunar comes up and says, “Come on, get on my back wheel. I’m going to go into TT mode right now and bring everyone home.” And Lenson says, “You’re not doing that. I’m going to do it myself.” Goes on the attack. Nobody following the Norwegian champion. Well, if he was fatigued coming out of the tour to France, if he missed the bus almost yesterday, well, he hasn’t missed it this time. It looks like he’s on rails and he wants to bring this one home. And Corbyn Strong, this suits him. Absolutely perfect because that’s 10 bonus seconds disappearing up the road right now. 6.4 km to go. Lechnes is the sort of rider that could make this stick. There’s a lot of quality about him. You don’t become Norwegian champion in that regard and he has absolutely kicked off 10 bike lengths he’s got right now. It could be heartbreak for him, but it’s a feisty real roll of the dice here. It’s Eddie Dumbar that’s trying to close it down. In so doing, he’s bringing up Riley Sheen, who of course will effectively lead out Corbyn Strong himself. Strong would like to finish this race off and finish everybody else off and indeed the ambitions of course of uh of Tom Pitcock who now is out of the frame here. He’s in about wheel 20 just towards the back of that group. And quite frankly, if it comes down to a full-on sprint, then Corbin Strong is your man. 5.7 km from home and the flick flack goes on. A little bit of a righthander, more of a lefthander right now. They’re keeping it upright the road still a suggestion of dampness in places, but not much of it. Lechner Sunund’s been tagged. We’re going to have a drag race to the line. This is brilliant. Riley Sheen is there. He’s uh he’s got a decent kick on him. And it might be that Corbin Strong, would he let him take a stage win knowing that Corbin Strong himself will be uh will be champion? That might factor into it, but it’s a dangerous game to play with Tom Pitcock still skirmishing. Bonus seconds though. We get 10 six and four at the line. The gap between Pitcock and indeed Corvin Strong is only 5 seconds. Dylan Turns is still here at 5ks out. You could still he’d have to kind of get into TT mode. I don’t think it’s going to be turns today for Coffidus, but they’ll get a good finish and they’ll welcome the points. Meanwhile, we uh we take this lefthander. We come back down towards the waters edge and right now who’s got the edge when it comes to the finale. Riley Sheen and Corbyn Strong are in an absolutely brilliant position. And well, here you go. There’s no way back other than to go long. There won’t be a chase here. Not from Corbyn Strong anyone anyway. Somebody else might go for this. So be brave if you’re Dylan turns. The turn is now. And he’s kicked off with 4.4 to go. Eight years ago, he did the duty. Don’t forget. Can he make the steal today? Well, he’s he’s pushed on. Unless is his teammate. Certainly looks like him at the moment. And so he kicks off. And of course, tempted is Vers to try and come and break his heart. They could team up together and bring this one home. Look over the shoulder. H. Why not? Let’s see if you can possibly make it. Still no chase invoked for now. not fully committed by the favorites anyway. They’re saving themselves. Corbyn Strong doesn’t have to chase. The only person who got to chase is Tom Bitcock and he’s not in the right position to do so at the moment. He may well get into that position before we get home. And in fact, that is Dylan turns a little bit further behind. This is not turns on our screens at the moment. We’ll get this for you in a second. It’s his teammate who was up the road just waiting to see. I was kind of hoping that in fact is it? I’m at the moment my eyes are deceiving me. We’re rocking and rolling all over the place. Looks too well built to be Dylan Turns. Maybe he’s grown in stature with the belief of what he could deliver uh today. Let’s see. They’re exchanging beautifully from side on. It does look like like Dylan Turns. 3.3 remaining and it is Q365 that are trying to close it down. It’s a teammate of Pitcock that’s going to try and break these guys hearts out front. Look behind. 4 seconds only. That’s no margin at all. You need You’d need that with 500 meters to go. Never mind 3.1 km. And the earpiece is ringing in the ears of Tom Pitcock’s teammate as he tries to encourage him to go for it. And Pitcock is here in wheel four. So still we have Corbyn Strong who is shadowing Pitcock at the moment. Pitcock drifting up has a a look see he’s on the back wheel in fact of Corbyn Strong. So the two principles for the overall are absolutely locked together. Hasn’t happened for coffee. this just for the time being. But will it now? It was indeed Dylan turns but now just drifting back. I think that was his best attempt at going for it. Didn’t work but Alani still a car to play for them. So Mason No, I beg you pardon. So here we go. Let’s bring this one into town, shall we? 2.4 kilometers to go. Riley Sheen on the blower almost saying what do you want me to do? No response as you can see the radio as well thumbmed there likewise by Pigcock’s teammate saying where are you get on my wheel I can get you in here is going to follow Corbin Strong Corbin Strong in wheel four now uh breakaway attempts have been killed off the sun still looks lively 2.1 of this 12th edition of the Arctic Race of Norway remaining as we come back into Trunza fantastic the cameraman gets reminded that there Traffic calming humps here. Not ground down for this one. And Dylan Turns is coming back. He’s on the right hand side. He wants to have another go here. I think he might be trying to slingshot his teammate up. Let’s see. He’d have to go very very long if he was going to have a a dig at a moment such as this. And it is Alani, his sprinter, who he wants to lead in. So, a quickman Alani. Also uh uh here for the fun of it is um team picnic post and aisle. Uh but Riley Shen is there and of course strong dead center in the middle of proceedings. Dylan Turns doing a teammates’s job. That’s absolutely fantastic. Meanwhile being led in here is Anton Chararmik number 24. Uh they should be working but Case B who is here finally. Um oh no it’s Ballerini isn’t it? He’s got the wrong number on today. Oh, who’d be a commentator? Meanwhile, pick it up and have a dig. And Bellerini’s in a good place here to to steal something. Uh, it’s a wheel that wants to be followed by Tom Pitcock. Ballerini wants to make it wants to make it home. He’s wearing the wrong number, we remind you today. And so it is that Pitcock comes up onto the shoulder now. Um, almost onto the back wheel. The mark is there. Charging into this one goes Halter. Halter’s going to try and lead in and it will be for Land. Loland is there. Number five. As you can see, Strong has a check over his shoulders. Other wants to get into into the business and have a flyer here. V Share hasn’t finished his duties. And the pickup goes right now. And it’s Kurt that goes, but he’s got Strong on his case. Treble one is Rick Plums. Plumemer’s almost shoulders into the side here of Corbyn. Strong is staying with it. He’s got near lead out, man. He’s going to have to do it on his own. Strong picks it up right now. Follows in on onto the back wheel. Can he possibly get there? Also, here’s the young Fed is coming through. Is he going to get fed and watered at the end of today? Cin Strong is still staying with it. Can’t quite get there just for the time being. Strong’s going to finish in second place. Super win for Van. Oh, that was brilliant. Freddy Van makes it count. Kaboom. You can hear that echoing around the fields here as the cannons go off. Freddy De it is that brings it in for Uno X Mobility. Slap on the back there from Loland who should have been the favored man but was out of position. Congratulations as well for a good fight between Corbin Strong who is crowned our winner. He gets congratulations here from Rick Bloomers who says well done my friend and indeed the first to congratulate him was of course Tom Pitcock as well. What a race. What a day. That was basically a 135.3 kilome sprint and a worthy winner we have both at the stage and the title overall. Shappo to everybody. Freddy de brings it home. You must be delighted uh Sebastian that uh the local man delivered even though your prediction didn’t quite come off. Let me just talk this in before we get a thoughts from Sebastian Hendrison. Great work. Tony Dean absolutely timed that to perfection. You’ve got to say that was a piece of class. What a day. Yes, an amazing day and an excellent race of UNX in this final lap and in the finish line. So it’s amazing with the our Norwegian team and that he is the winner of this uh race in Trumsa. And of course congratulation to Corbin for taking the whole trophy and the whole race home. Corbyn Strong has words. He is our champion winner of course of the opening stage and he has delivered impeccably well. That roar upon the mic told you everything you needed to know. Vern brought it home. Corbyn Strong finishing the day in second place ahead of Ballerini was busy all day. Plumemer’s in fourth place ahead of Coler. Pitcock sixth at the sprint in the end. Ahead of Venzel Chto was very well placed. That was sensational. Have yourself a berry drink my friend. You deserve it. Yes, it’s welld deserved. And what a race it has been and the speed the car. Here we go. This was our grand finale as we brought it in with the last 300 meters. Uh this was a fine move. Um the race has been honored by so many hard-fought battles here. But look at Vern. He set sail around the outside. Everyone else momentarily was looking at each other. Strong believed that he could actually take the victory here, but Diver got the jump on absolutely everybody. Ballerini tried to fold into the gap. Strong just drifted over trying to get onto the wheel of Vern actually and in so doing he just almost shortened the gap to home. He tried to get back at burn couldn’t quite make it and on the line less than a bike length between our champion Corbyn Strong and the stage winner into it was of course Freddy Deal the man from Unix Mobility giving the home side their second stage win of this race. An impeccable effort, a great result. He looked either side like he couldn’t quite believe it. Well, he believes it now. Strong is our champion. Gets the congratulations. Held off some very committed climbing and attacking from Tom Pitcock. And for a fast man, he has proven in this race he climbs extremely well. He’s on stellar form. He was nowhere near the the top list of favorites coming into this race. Possibly I would have said outside of the top five, but he has ended as number one and takes the race by a margin of 11 seconds from the very spirited challenge of Tom Pitcock. Scarrone in third place for um XDS Astana ahead of Riley Shien, teammate of Corbin Strong. Shampoo rounding it out two for XAT here. Vermar Shter brilliant for the youngster from Ara as well. Felix Angelhart rode well consistently throughout the race to get himself a solid top 10 position as well. You know the Arctic Race of Norway is not only a very beautiful race, it’s also one that offers up great drama. Not just in the geography, as I say, but in the way it is written. Four stages which offer up almost everything to everybody. There’s something here for everybody and I guess that you could put that underneath the uh the welcome sign to Drumza itself. Yes indeed. It’s uh sportsmanship in uh in the world class but also livelihood and it’s the people and the city vibrating and alongside the race. It’s amazing. So make sure you make the trip because it is well worth it. Look at this. The Norwegian national team are absolutely delighted for him as well. That’s good saying well done mate. Look at this. The congratulations raining in. That’s Daniel Ernest as well also saying well done. The collective spirit of Norway. So the Norwegian national team and of course Unix mobility who I think most of them would hope to ride for something Bism will be doing from next year. And here’s Gordon in strong. Hollywood smile. Hollywood star turn performance as well. It was by him. This was in the final kilometer and once again this last kilometer for us to have a look see. Lots of chops and changes. It’s um I mean the fatigue was on display from everybody. There was so many riders came out of the saddle went back into it. Attacks raining in one after the other. It’s about keeping your nerve and knowing when to go. And where is number two? You ask yourself at a moment such as this. He was busy coming up on the outside on the left hand side like a skyrocket. There he is at the bottom of your screen. Still hasn’t engaged yet. There’s 15 riders in front of him. He still hasn’t engaged yet. There’s a couple of hundred meters only to go and he’s starting to think about it. He’s freewheeling at this point. He hasn’t gone for it. He picks up the wheel of uh of Heathery and then as Hily in Heathery ex extends himself he just starts to pour on the power. Corbyn Strong realizes that the danger of the of the sprint going away from him but you cannot catch Durn at a moment like this. He basically sprinted and then TTED that pace all the way to the line. Genius. Yes, it’s very very well done. Let us hear from the day’s winner. Congratulations. You have just won the Arctic race of Norway. But how stressful was today? Oh, it was a incredibly stressful day actually. Uh I knew we were going to be under attack from kilometer zero, but um it exceeded my expectations, especially the first few laps in the rain. I was uh yeah really not confident in uh in being able to control today actually. It was uh really stressful and then the wet defense as well. I know this is a strength of Pitcock. So yeah, I uh I uh yeah was really nervous for today and then uh the first few laps are even more out of control and harder than I expected. But my team was just incredible today. Uh we were fourth first, fourth, ninth, and 15th from GC coming into today. So, we’re uh we have an incredibly strong team here and those boys just put it all on the line for me today and uh yeah, I owe this owe this win to them cuz they were incredible and I couldn’t have done it without them today. And you were extremely strong all all along the the week basically. Yeah, I uh I knew in Maloney I felt really good, really strong on the climbs, but um yeah, I was quite confident I could do a I could do an okay GC here. I knew uh the 4K at 8% was going to be uh really difficult against guys like Scarrone and Pitcock, but um yeah, I thought I could do maybe a top five, maybe a podium if uh on GC if I was uh if I had a really good ride, but um I think yesterday I exceeded my expectations and uh yeah, to take the GC here, I’m uh really proud of myself. really uh really um yeah didn’t expect to win the GC here. So to be in the yellow and uh finish it off with my teammates today was a really nice feeling. It’s not just amazing landscapes of Norway, there’s also the experience of winning it and that’s uh must be important for you. Yeah, it’s been a really enjoyable week. Uh yeah, with the guys on and off the bike, it’s it’s uh yeah, it’s been amazing actually. Just um yeah, even seeing the scenery here in Norway, it’s something I really appreciate. And uh yeah, just to just to ride my bike here was an incredible week uh experience, but to win is is another level. And uh yeah, guys like Tom just rode their asses off all uh all week. And I’m I’m really really lucky to have teammates like I did this week. Enjoy the celebration now. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Tom Vanbrook just dropping in to offer up congratulations. This is the uh ROMsa arena where um the red and white stripes play. Yes. And they are actually playing today. Our women team is playing now with against start from the south of Norway. So this is a newly started match actually with our women’s team. Newly started. Um it’s a I’ve got to say it’s a nice little stadium you’ve got going on here. Yes, it’s sometimes snowy and sometimes green and beautiful like today, Carton. I must give a fun fact to you and the uh listeners and viewers. The other team from start they had to have a police escort. Wow. Let’s hear from the today’s winner. first experience on the Arctic Race of Norway. But uh how important is it to win to win a stage on this race? Oh, it’s uh fantastic uh win a win a race here in Norway. Incredible and also a super tough uh tough day. I I can’t believe it to be honest because yeah, you you struggle. We saw you dropped not once but twice and you battled it through to make it to the line. take us with the stage. I was dropped at several times and uh like the first lap we uh wanted to get a guy in a break and we got orda and for me it was uh pretty brutal with those steep hills and uh was kind of uh going for a helper role to help uh help us in the in the bunch and to get us good positioned in into the into the hills. But uh yeah, we came back uh over and over again and uh super good help from uh from Ordina when I uh when I got dropped. We helped each other to get back and uh I just found I found an opening last kilometer and uh started early and uh I took it. Uh almost the perfect week for for the team for you know X mobility with two victories. That’s also very important. Yeah, we came here with a hope for a better GC GC, but uh it’s uh a little bit too hard yesterday. So to get to to get a stage today uh instead uh worth it. Thank you very much. Enjoy the podium. Thanks. You should enjoy the podium. And there will be tribute as well paid to this man. Alexander Kristoff is the mighty to Uso himself. His boss of course these days as part of UNOX Mobility. Um he’s also the ambassador to the race is the mighty tour. And I think they’re going to call Alexander Kristoff to the podium in order to take the applause from the crowd and receive the thanks of them for what has been a fantastic career. He will race on for the remainder of the season, but this is his last race in Norway. Yes, it’s sad to see that. It’s a great sportman and he’s very loved by all the people in the northern part of Norway and in Norway in total. I believe that was Paul Miguel coming across the line there and uh uh with the what’s called the what is referred to as the broom wagon just behind him. So all riders have now completed the course. Diver takes it ahead of Strong Ballerini, Plumis and Cola. We’ll have the day’s winner on the podium in a few moments time. Big Cook finished today in sixth place ahead of Venel Shutter Uldani and Sven Eric Beastrom rounding out your top 10. Strong then accenting his lead overall because of six bonus seconds at the line. There you go. So takes the race by a margin of 11 seconds. What’s this lake we’re looking at? Looks like a pond. Oh, that’s uh Plastana where we had the the climbing. Ah, that’s our central power, Cton. Ah, okay. So, that’s that’s a freshwater lake. Yes, that’s a fresh water lake. And here is the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. Yes. Tells you what the weather’s going to do. Yes. It’s always very important. And this is one of the oldest building we have as well. Well, I imagine before uh the fisherman and the whalers set sail that they would want all the detail that they could possibly get. Yes, indeed. And you know uh legendary people like Armenson Fit of Nansson they came to Trumsa because of our knowledge before going on the big explo expectation. Um I mean before the days of um predictions I mean it was it was I guess weather patterns that had been before. So it was a question of records that would have been kept there uh for people to refer back to. So you you predicted weather by habit almost and knowledge. Yes, knowledge and habit and some records. But it was important to have a good crew like a good bicycle team. You had to have different people with different knowledge that could uh navigate the ships in these kind of conditions. Uh they did of course have rudimentary equipment then like barometers and the like to measure air pressure and changing systems. But yeah, amazing how much knowledge they managed to amass with no electronic monitoring equipment. Yes, it’s impressive. and when they went on these huge expeditions but didn’t have any of the tools that we have today. Well, we’ve got uh the Cornet players here and I’m actually wondering whether this is going to be not only for our stage but also for us. Winner of the four stage of the winner 25. Amazing. What timing that was at the end and he gave so much but still held back just enough to come through and win the salmon. Yes, it was excellent at done. It was quite impressive the last how he came to the finish line. Held his nerve. chose exactly the right moment to go. There we are. Gets himself 50 kilos of salmon. Of course, more importantly, I guess the stage win as well and the appreciation of love of all of those surrounding the podium here. That was great. Congratulations to him. Wow. We’ve got a whole load of other awards. You’ll see the results as well. We’ve already, of course, been through this. That’s a a great view of the city. Just shows how populous it is. Evenly spread though, I’ve got to say it doesn’t feel hemmed in. No, not yet. It’s uh it’s nice. Just enough room for a big garden. Yes. Have you got one yourself? No, no garden. I live downtown in the city. Ah, so you’re in an apartment. This is beautiful as well. This is one of our oldest church, Elva Church, and it used to be just here in the finish line and they actually took it away. Yes. And now it’s up on the island in big pieces, I imagine. Yes. In big pizza, but it’s like 100 years ago. It’s a long time ago. Fantastic. Yeah, it’s impressive. Well, there always has to be a uh a combativity award as well. And Julie awarded today the most active rider. He was busy, wasn’t he, out there? Good lad. Well, the Mountains jersey should actually stay. I don’t think his arch rival got up there. So, only one point separating the uh Mountains jersey winner, Storm Ingabson. We’ll see that get confirmation in a short while. But first of all, let’s deal with the man who owns three jerseys out here. It is of course Corbin Strong, champion of the Arctic race of Norway. Ladies and gentlemen, the GC, please welcome Corin. Well done. and chapo to him. I mean ticked the first day and then was hampered by a crash on the day that Alexander Kristoff won, but bounced back and indeed finished second to Pitcock on a big climbing day yesterday and then had what it took to not only match Pitcock, but indeed occasionally just looked like he was going to beat him and did at the line today after 2,116 meters of altitude gain just today. There is no worthier winner of this race than this man. Impressive. Yes, hugely impressive. And through the whole race. Here is the final classification of the 12th edition of the Arctic Race of Norway. Corbyn Strong takes it after 15 hours and 49 minutes of racing over the four days by 11 seconds from Tom Bitcock who really gave it his best shot today. Scarrone close at hand for for XDS Astana. They really thought that this race should have belonged to to them. They came here with an extraordinarily strong team. Some say the strongest. But you had to beat the man who’s called Mr. Strong. Of all the Mr. Men, he’s done the job. this. If you want to come forward, ladies and gentlemen, this is the best sprinters competition. Well, he took one sprint. He then of course finished second behind Tom Pitcock on stage three on a mountain stage. Once again, please welcome. This essentially is the point classification. Corin Strong, of course, our race winner, also owns this. Tell you what, we got some tall soldiers here. He’s he’s the same height as the general, but he needs he’s on the top side of the podium. The the general isn’t. Yes. People from the northern part of Norway are sometimes very tall. You even have the military today. And here is your points classification. And it’s a country mile, isn’t it, between Corbyn Strong and Tom Pitcock. 17 points separating them. Freddy Dean, who won today, finishing third in the points competition. That goes on his pal Mars. And he will look down at those who are indeed behind him and be very pleased at what he has achieved. Well, the climbers of course get a uh get a goat pelt. Yes, it’s a nice tradition. It is craftsmanship from Norway. And the winner of the best competition is fantastic. Norway got the stage win and they’ve also taken of course two stage wins in this race after Alexander Kristoff and they’ve got the Mountains jersey as well, the Northern Lights jersey. Only one point separating Thorma Ingabson in the King of the Mountains competition from fellow Norwegian Morton Wang uh Bakos. I think I finally got his name right. Yes, that’s right. cotton. That’s nice. There it is. That was a close competition amongst the breakaway riders at the beginning of this race. Now, is this a Yuno X sponsored boat or a lifeboat or maybe a bit of both? It looks like a lifeboat, but the orange suggests that it might actually be a Yuno X. I I have no idea, but uh but there you go. If it is a lifeboat, they set sail today and did so on two occasions. It is a lifeboat. There you go. The bugles are going, which means I think we’ve got our best young rider. Best young riders competition. This is Gin Strong. Corin Strong again. Of course. I don’t think that will be the last time we see him as well because I think we’re going to have the overall podium a little bit later on. And of course, we got the top team result. This background is the top of our climb today. confirmation of the best young rider um ahead of Riley Sheen has been carrying this jersey for him for quite some time. I’ve got to tell you Israel premier that was one and two on the opening day when Strong just edged Sheen at the line. for in third place. Please welcome Christian. Well, this is indeed your overall podium. So, the quick change artist that is Corbyn Strong has got to take a couple of jerseys off and reveal the yellow in a few moments time. Christian Scarrone came here with a lot of hope. In fact, I had him marked down as second favorite. Favorite for me for the race was this man. No shame in finishing runner up in this great race. 11 seconds only between Tom Kcock who came here after just securing the mountain bike European Championship title. But there can only be one winner and what a great winner we have got. winner of race of Norway. Please welcome on stage the winner of artic race 2025 Corbin Strong. There is the overall podium then for the 12th edition of the Arctic Race of Norway. I am already looking forward to next year. What about yourself, Sebastian? Yes, I’m looking forward to new races, new parts of Northern Norway and Norway to show off some sportsmanship and to show off our livelihood up here. It’s a heavy. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the final podium of the Arctic Race of Norway 2025. Christian Scone, Tom Pitcock, and Corbin Strong. Well, there is a Viking jersey um to be honest for the best Norwegian rider as well and an overall combat combativity award also has to come and the best team as We’ve had all of the primary jerseys and there is our podium. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the best teams classification. Please welcome Extana. There we are. The average of your best finishing riders on each day and XDS Astana have come through to nick it from Israel Premier Techch at the very last. XDS actually were leading this classification at the beginning. Um it all Garners points. It’s all important stuff and Aston really come very very strong at the end of uh the midpoint of this season I must say and eased their threat that they might actually be relegated. That’s now long gone and they’ve been a big part of the proceedings here. Thank you guys. Thank you. Okay. Well, there is a look at our race director as well. He does a fabulous job every year and um it’s it’s almost a thankless task because you’re basically asking people for support and Eric does it very well. Yes indeed and he has created an adventure and a fantastic international sports arrangement in Norway. Sometimes it just takes the will and indeed drive of one man to deliver that. Well, this is best Norwegian and it’s Martin. He has been very busy and indeed is extremely well placed as well. Overall, he’s had he’s been um I won’t say quietly efficient because you can’t be quiet in a race such as this, but he’s been fantastic. Really enjoyed watching it. Yes. Really a coming man. Yes. Best teammate here. They had to get him up. And this is Our friend Alexander Kristoff about to take a bow from racing professionally in Norway. This will be an emotional moment for the man. He’s been a great servant of the sport, hasn’t he? Yes. And has a good set of values and a great ambassador. Well, he has been an amazing rider. I’ve loved watching him. We’ll continue to watch him of course as his career draws to a close this year. Been a European champion of course one Milan San Remo the uh tour of Fllanders. Just a fabulous fabulous rider. Four times a stage winner on the tour to France including up the Shan as well. Kristoff is now talking about the race and how it was very brutal and tough today. And now he’s finishing up his career. He has And now the director is asking me possible to get 100 wins before ending his career. And he says he’s going to give it all the last two months. This is one of the greatest we have had in Northern Norway Norwegian sports when it comes to cycling. And that will be a very welcome jersey and and a lovely moment as well. Alexander Kristoff, we thank him and all he has done for cycling. Some thrilling moments throughout. An amazing career. Drawn to a close here in Norway, but he will of course race on for the remainder of the season. He’s off to the Classic Hamburg. He’ll do the Deutsland Tour and I believe the tour of Lancawi in Malaysia as well. Uh there may be some more after that, but that’s his uh the the next indeed part of his theater. I’d just like to firstly say thank you to Sebastian Hendrison. I’d love to say thank you to as well Christoff Pon for directing us wonderfully. Uh to indeed our organizers and our race director who we’ve already uh named but so beautifully pulled together. The scenery has been stunning. The racing has been amazing. It’s been an absolute privilege. My name is Carlton Kirby. Thank you so much for joining us for the ride. Stay safe and we’ll see you again next year. But for now, from the Arctic Race of Norway, it’s farewell. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. until the start. One go. Good luck, guys, and stay safe on the road today. What’s up? Heat. Heat. Here we go. Another I’m sorry. Fire down. sucking up your hand. Heat. Heat. Congratulations. Ladies and gentlemen, Frederick Venice, congratulations. Obviously not your first experience on the Arctic Race of Norway, but uh how important is it to win to win a stage on this race? Ah, it’s fantastic uh win a win a race here in Norway. Uh incredible and also a super tough uh tough day. I I can’t believe it to be honest because yeah, you you struggle. We saw you dropped not once but twice and you battled it through to make it to the line. Take us through the stage. I was dropped at several times and uh like the first lap we wanted to get a guy in a break and we gota and for me it was uh pretty brutal with those steep hills and uh was kind of uh going for a helper role to help uh help us in the in the bunch and to get us good positioned in into the into the hills. Uh but uh yeah, we came back uh over and over again and uh super good help from uh from Ordna when I uh when I got dropped. We helped each other to get back and uh I just found I found an opening last kilometer and uh started early and uh I took it. Uh almost the perfect week for for the team for you know X mobility with two victories. That’s also very important. Yeah, we came here with a hope for a better GC GC, but uh was uh a little bit too hard yesterday. So to get to to get a stage today instead uh worth it. Thank you very much. Enjoy the podium. Thanks. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the winner of the Arctic race of Norway 2025. Congratulations. You have just won the Arctic race of Norway, but how stressful was today? Oh, it was a incredibly stressful day actually. Uh I knew we were going to be under attack from kilometer zero, but um it exceeded my expectations, especially the first few laps in the rain. I was uh yeah, really not confident in uh in being able to control today actually. It was uh really stressful and then the wet defense as well. I know this is a strength of Pitcock. So yeah, I uh I uh yeah, was really nervous for today and then uh the first few laps were even more out of control and and harder than I expected. But my team was just incredible today. Uh we were fourth uh first, fourth, ninth, and 15th from GC coming into today. So we’re we have an incredibly strong team here, and those boys just put it all on the line for me today. And uh yeah, I owe this owe this win to them cuz they were incredible and I couldn’t have done it without them today. And you were extremely strong all all along the the week basically. Yeah, I uh I knew in Maloney I felt really good, really strong on the clims, but um yeah, I was quite confident I could do a I could do an okay GC here. I knew uh the 4K at 8% was going to be uh really difficult against guys like Scarrone and Pitcock, but um yeah, I thought I could do maybe a top five, maybe a podium if uh on GC if I was uh if I had a really good ride. But um I think yesterday I exceeded my expectations and uh yeah to take the GC here I’m uh really proud of myself. Really uh really um yeah didn’t expect to win the GC here. So to be in the yellow and finish it off with my teammates today is a really nice feeling. It’s not just amazing landscapes of Norway. There’s also the experience of winning it and that’s uh must be important for you. Yeah, it’s been a really enjoyable week. Uh yeah, with the guys on and off the bike, it’s it’s uh yeah, it’s been amazing actually. Just um yeah, even seeing the scenery here in Norway, it’s something I really appreciate. And uh yeah, just to just to ride my bike here was an incredible week experience, but to win is is another level. And uh yeah, guys like Tom just rode their asses off uh all week and I’m I’m really really lucky to have teammates like I did this week. Enjoy the celebration now. Thank you. Thanks a lot. What’s next? Ladies and gentlemen, this is ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the white jersey commencement. Five, Christian Scaron, Tom Pitco, and Corbin Strong. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the best teams classific