Arctic Race of Norway: Thomas Silva holds off Lennert van Eetvelt on steep uphill sprint to win stage 3 and takes race lead

Thomas Silva (XDS-Astana) wins stage 3 summit finish .

Thomas Silva (XDS-Astana) countered an attack by Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché) in the final kilometre of the final climb up “Norwegian mini-Mont Ventoux”, Storheia, to win stage 3 of the Arctic Race of Norway.

Crossing the line nine seconds later, Alessando Pinarello (NSN Cycling Team) took third.

A dwindling peloton caught the final breakaway rider with five kilometres to go. From there, Picnic-PostNL took over the pacemaking on the steep narrow road, while more riders were shelled.

Van Eetvelt, who had stayed in fourth wheel on the lower slopes, made his move with one kilometre to go, on the brutal 15% steep pitch. Silva and Pinarello covered the move, and then Silva came around to push the pace, getting a small gap. The Belgium chased but was not able to close the metres separating the two before the finish line.

"Now I stay really happy. It's a really hard final," Silva said.

“We knew today's finish wasn't ideally suited to my characteristics because the final climb was long and very steep. But the team believed in me, I was feeling quite good myself, so we decided to go for the stage win, and the team gave me full support," Silva said.

"The pace on the final climb was very high, but I chose to ride at my own rhythm until the last kilometre. Marco Schrettl stayed with me the whole time, supporting me, which helped me remain in the leading group until the finale. Then I simply gave everything I had in the final acceleration, and it was enough to win."

The first summit finish delivered the expected shakeup on the general classification with Silva having 10 seconds on Van Eetvelt, and 21 seconds on Pinarello.

The world’s northernmost road cycling race concludes with hilly stage 10, 190.5 kilometres from Sortland to Narvik.

After two days for the sprinters, it was time for the puncheurs to shine on stage 3, a hilly 146.5 kilometres from Stokmarknes to the race’s hardest climb, Storheia. Called Norwegian mini-Mont Ventoux, the finish ascent is 3.5 kilometres averaging 11.8%. But before that, the riders had to face two climbs and the important intermediate sprint and its associated time bonus sprint on the figure-eight-shaped course of the Queen Stage.

The peloton, with the NSN Cycling team lined up at the front, paused for a minute of applause to honour NSN’s Finlay Starling after his tragic death during stage 8 at the Volta a Portugal before the racing got underway.

Immediately after the flag drop, on a chilly day, as the rain started to fall with temperatures of 13 °C, five riders pulled away from the front and had a 1:22 gap after 10 kilometres. The all-Scandinavian break included Erik Vang Aas (Drali-Repsol), Thomas Eriksen (Lillehammer CK), Aksel Laforce (Ringerike) and Lucky Sport’s duo of Morthen Wang Baksaas and Finnish road champion Axel Källberg.

The battle for mountain points raged in the break with Aas able to close his deficit to 1 point to KOM leader Baksaas in the two KOM climbs. Aas and Baksaas then dropped out of the break, leaving the other three to continue on.

Meanwhile, Modern Adventures mostly, Pinarello-Q36.5 and XDS-Astana and Modern Adventures, but not race leader Giovanni Lonardi’s team Polti VisitMalta, took turns at the front to keep the gap manageable, under the 2-minute mark.

With 44 kilometres to go, the trio off the front had 1:23 gap as the skies cleared up, and riders took their rain gear off.

The peloton, with Modern Adventure on the right-side and Pinarello-Q36.5 on the left, brought the gap to 45 seconds with 15 kilometres to go.

NSN took over the front with seven kilometres to go, as Källberg took a last ditch flyer, with a gap of 17 seconds, but he was caught two kilometres later.

Teams jostled for position at the front, as the steep narrow road shelled riders off the back with four kilometres to go. TotalEnergies and then Picnic-PostNL set the pace at the front heading towards the 15% ramp to start the final kilometre.

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Results

Stage 3 results

Pos	Rider	Time
1	Guillermo Thomas Silva Coussan (Uru) XDS Astana	3:29:11
2	Lennert van Eetvelt (Bel) Lotto-Intermarché	00
3	Alessandro Pinarello (Ita) NSN Cycling Team	09
4	Robbe Dhondt (Bel) Picnic PostNL	09
5	Felix Engelhardt (Ger) Jayco-AlUla	15
6	Sebastian Berwick (Aus) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA	16
7	Thomas Bonnet (Fra) Totalenergies	19
8	Wouter Poels (Ned) Unibet Rose Rockets	20
9	Joris Delbove (Fra) Totalenergies	24
10	Fabio Christen (Swi) Pinarello-Q36.5	26
11	Johannes Kulset (Nor) Uno-X Mobility	35
12	Cedrik Bakke Christophersen (Nor) Unibet Rose Rockets	35
13	Marco Schrettl (Aut) XDS Astana	45
14	Bert Bolle (Bel) Volkerwessels	50
15	Kevin Andre Sandli Messel (Nor) Team Ringerike	53
16	Mark Donovan (GBr) Pinarello-Q36.5	53
1:00	Ludovico Crescioli (Ita) Polti-VisitMalta
1:00	Byron Munton (RSA) Modern Adventure
1:05	Jon Agirre Egaña (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
1:11	Martin Tjøtta (Nor) Uno-X Mobility
1:11	Gotzon Martin Sanz (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
1:22	Alexy Faure Prost (Fra) Picnic PostNL
1:22	Odd Christian Eiking (Nor) Unibet Rose Rockets
1:22	Joseba Lopez Cuesta (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
1:22	Vincent van Hemelen (Bel) Team Flanders - Baloise
1:22	Damien Howson (Aus) Pinarello-Q36.5
1:22	Xabier Berasategi Garmendia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
1:31	Anders Foldager (Den) Jayco-AlUla
1:31	Louis Sutton (GBr) Euskaltel-Euskadi
1:36	Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) Uno-X Mobility
1:38	Georg Rydningen Martinsen (Nor) Lillehammer Ck Continental Team
1:42	Magnus Kulset (Nor) Team Ringerike
1:47	Vilmer Ekman (Swe) Lucky Sport Cycling Team
1:50	Joel Nicolau Beltran (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
1:50	Alessandro Covi (Ita) Jayco-AlUla
1:53	Dario Giuliano (Fra) Polti-VisitMalta
1:55	Thomas Gachignard (Fra) Totalenergies
1:55	Nicolas Alustiza Goenaga (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
1:58	Elias Maris (Bel) Team Flanders - Baloise
2:08	Teodor de Luca (Swe) Lucky Sport Cycling Team
2:08	Alex Diaz Alvarez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
2:08	Toralf Rydningen Martinsen (Nor) Team Drali - Repsol
2:13	Felix Ørn-Kristoff (Nor) Lotto-Intermarché
2:16	Michiel Lambrecht (Bel) Team Flanders - Baloise
2:18	Darren van Bekkum (Ned) XDS Astana
2:18	Simen Evertsen-Hegreberg (Nor) Lucky Sport Cycling Team
2:29	Owen Geleijn (Ned) Unibet Rose Rockets
2:34	Mathieu Kockelmann (Lux) Lotto-Intermarché
2:34	Henrik Teslo Fjellheim (Nor) Lillehammer Ck Continental Team
2:39	Andréa Mifsud (Mlt) Polti-VisitMalta
2:44	Artëm Fofonov (Fra) Xds Astana Development Team
2:46	Christopher Jensen (Den) Jayco-AlUla
2:46	Samuel Leroux (Fra) Totalenergies
2:46	Cole Kessler (USA) Modern Adventure
2:52	Sander Granberg (Nor) Team Drali - Repsol
3:10	Oliver Bleddyn (Aus) Team Brennan
3:13	Halvor Dolven (Nor) Lotto - Groupe Wanty
3:18	Karl Emil Kjeldsand (Nor) Team Drali - Repsol
3:26	Hugo Lennartsson (Swe) Lucky Sport Cycling Team
3:47	Mirco Maestri (Ita) Polti-VisitMalta
3:47	Ward Vanhoof (Bel) Team Flanders - Baloise
3:51	Karsten Larsen Feldmann (Nor) Unibet Rose Rockets
3:51	Ludvik Aspelund Holstad (Nor) Team Ringerike
3:59	Herman Emil Eriksen (Nor) Lillehammer Ck Continental Team
4:01	Even Thorvaldsen (Nor) Lillehammer Ck Continental Team
4:14	Victor Vercouillie (Bel) Team Flanders - Baloise
4:42	Sébastien Grignard (Bel) Lotto-Intermarché
5:02	Ronan Auge (Fra) Unibet Rose Rockets
5:11	Hamish Mckenzie (Aus) Jayco-AlUla
5:26	Henrik Pedersen (Den) Uno-X Mobility
5:30	Lionel Taminiaux (Bel) Lotto-Intermarché
5:30	Ådne Holter (Nor) Uno-X Mobility
6:04	Andreas Flaatten (Nor) Lillehammer Ck Continental Team
6:16	Christian Alexander Klund (Nor) Team Ringerike
6:23	Axel Källberg (Fin) Lucky Sport Cycling Team
6:27	Iker Villar Galdeano (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
6:36	Lorrenzo Manzin (Fra) Totalenergies
6:36	Jason Tesson (Fra) Totalenergies
6:41	Thomas Eriksen (Nor) Lillehammer Ck Continental Team
6:41	Ethan Vernon (GBr) NSN Cycling Team
6:41	Dion Allan Smith (NZl) NSN Cycling Team
6:41	Rotem Tene (Isr) NSN Cycling Team
7:26	Eirik Vang Aas (Nor) Team Drali - Repsol
7:26	Dillon Corkery (Irl) Picnic PostNL
7:58	Kiaan Watts (NZl) Nsn Development Team
7:58	Casper Cornelis van Uden (Ned) Picnic PostNL
7:59	Emils Liepins (Lat) Pinarello-Q36.5
8:01	Artuur Torney (Bel) Team Flanders - Baloise
8:40	Tobias Risan Nakken (Nor) Team Drali - Repsol
9:03	Oscar Amey (GBr) Nsn Development Team
9:03	Ezra Caudell (USA) Modern Adventure
9:03	Mark Stewart (GBr) Modern Adventure
9:06	Peder Wettre Andreassen (Nor) Team Ringerike
9:09	Matteo Badilatti (Swi) Pinarello-Q36.5
9:13	Anton Kuzmin (Kaz) XDS Astana
10:02	Andrea Pietrobon (Ita) Polti-VisitMalta
10:02	Giovanni Lonardi (Ita) Polti-VisitMalta
10:02	Marc Rubirola Vila (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
10:19	Brody Mcdonald (USA) Modern Adventure
10:35	Paul Hennequin (Fra) Euskaltel-Euskadi
10:47	Riley Pickrell (Can) Modern Adventure
11:02	Erlend Blikra (Nor) Uno-X Mobility
11:06	Henrik E. Farstadvoll (Nor) Lillehammer Ck Continental Team
11:56	Nikiforos Arvanitou (Gre) Team United Shipping
11:56	Joe Pidcock (GBr) Pinarello-Q36.5
12:53	Aksel Laforce (Nor) Team Ringerike
12:53	Morthen Wang Baksaas (Nor) Lucky Sport Cycling Team

Top 10 general classification after stage 3

Position	Rider (Country) Team	Time Gap
1	Guillermo Thomas Silva Coussan (Uru) XDS Astana Team	11:31:07
2	Lennert Van Eetvelt (Bel) Lotto-Intermarché	0:00:10
3	Alessandro Pinarello (Ita) NSN Cycling Team	0:00:21
4	Robbe Dhondt (Bel) Team Picnic PostNL	0:00:25
5	Felix Engelhardt (Ger) Team Jayco-AlUla	0:00:31
6	Sebastian Berwick (Aus) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA	0:00:32
7	Thomas Bonnet (Fra) Team TotalEnergies	0:00:35
8	Wout Poels (Ned) Unibet Rose Rockets	0:00:36
9	Joris Delbove (Fra) Team TotalEnergies	0:00:40
10	Fabio Christen (Swi) Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team	0:00:42