Alberto Dainese (Team dsm-firmenich) won the opening stage and took the first leader's jersey at the Arctic Race of Norway.
The Italian was boxed in with several hundred metres to go but patiently waited for an opening to launch his sprint, starting from several riders back, and then passed Noah Hobbs (Equipe continentale Groupama-FDJ) at the line to take the win in Alta. Clément Champoussin (Arkéa-Samsic) sprinted to third place.
"It's been a couple of months without racing after the Giro, but I've been training well. Today there was a bit of pressure, let's say, one of the only sprinters from the WorldTour teams, so I had to deliver," Dainese said.
"It was unfortunate that we lost Andreas Leknessund due to fever after he won the title last year. This morning when he said I must win for him, I did my best.
"All the guys rode well and the situation was not easy at the front; we were getting boxed in. In the sprint, I was around 15th position with 300m to go, so I thought it was not for the win, but when I found a space, I could pass the guys, and I'm happy to finish it off."
Dainese now leads the race by four seconds over Hobbs as the race heads into stage 2 from Alta to Hammerfest on Friday.
The Arctic Race of Norway's opening stage offered the field a relatively flat 171km from Kautokeino to Alta. The route included one intermediate sprint in Masi at the 60km mark. The peloton then raced for nearly 120km before reaching a smaller loop that included multiple climbs over the Bossekop (1.7km at 4.1%) and a sprint through the finish line on each lap.
An early breakaway formed that included Johan Ravnøy (Team Coop-Repsol), Fergus Browning (Trinity Racing), Lewis Bower and Trym Brennsæter (both Equipe continentale Groupama-FDJ), Torbjørn Røed (Above & Beyond Cancer Cycling p/b Bike World), and Benjamin Perry (Human Powered Health).
The six-rider move formed within the first 20km of racing and initially gained 2:50 on the field led by Team dsm-firmenich.
Bower picked up the full points at the intermediate sprint, but the breakaway's gap slowly dropped as the race approached the hillier second part of the route.
The six riders had only 1:25 with 100km to go as Uno-X Pro Cycling took the lead and set the pace from the bunch behind.
Bower surged on the Bossekop climb and took the points over the top, and only Browning and Ravnøy could hold those speeds, distancing the others front the breakaway with 36km to go.
Bower again took points over the next climbs over Bossekop, but the trio held a slim 15 seconds with 25km to go, the remaining riders from the initial move already swept up by the peloton.
Multiple attacks from the field led to a solo breakaway from Daryl Impey (Israel Premier Tech), but he only had seven seconds on a charging field inside 6km to the finish.
Impey's pushed his slim lead out to 15 seconds with 4km to go, but as teams dsm-firmenich and Jayco AlUla pulled the peloton into the final, his gap dropped to four seconds, and he was caught under the flamme rouge.
Movistar and Equipe continentale Groupama-FDJ hit out with powerful lead-outs, and Hobbs launched his sprint first. However, a boxed-in Dainese eventually found an opening in the final few hundred metres, which gave him the space to start his late but powerful sprint. Clearly the fastest in the field, the Italian came from several riders back and passed Hobbs right at the line to take the stage win.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
