After a solid finish when the race split on yesterday's opening leg, Nicolas Roche made the breakaway on stage 2 in Norway today. And he has shot into the top 10 overall.
Nicolas Roche in Arctic Race of Norway break
Nicolas Roche made the winning breakaway on stage 2 of the Arctic Race of Norway. The Irishman is now up to 8th overall with two stages remaining.
On a day in the crosswinds over lumpy and exposed terrain, Roche proved one of the very strongest.
And after a troubled couple of months he is now in a great position to take a general classification result when this race ends in two days.
Before what proved to be the winning move pulled clear today, Roche and a couple of his team mates put the race in the gutter in a bid to split the field.
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Their move had the desired effect in the crosswinds with some 60km remaining. But shortly after the pack split it regrouped.
However, that action softened up what remained of the peloton. And when the finale began about 25km later, Roche had the legs to make it into the key move.
The peloton simply whittled down until there were fewer than 20 men left in the front; BMC causing much of the damage.
Ireland's Nicolas Roche was in this breakaway group - of 11 riders - sprinting for victory at the end of stage 2 of the Arctic Race of Norway. Colin Joyce of Rally Cycling - far left - took victory.
The race leader went in a chasing group after the early escape. However, the race regrouped and when it split in the final the Dutch champion paid for his earlier efforts and lost yellow.
The first climb today, after 45km at Duoriejeaggi, saw Nicolas Roche signal his intent for the day.
Krister Hagen (Coop) took maximum points, from the Irishman and then Sindre Lunke (Fortuneo-Samsic).
Soon after a group that of six would ride clear. It featured Ryan Anderson (Rally), Loïc Chetout (Cofidis), Henrik Evensen (Joker-Icopal), Dennis van Winden (Israel Cycling Academy), Yannick Martinez (Delko Marseille-Provence KTM) and Lunke.
After 65km the breakaway had four minutes. At that point, a six-man chase group set off after the leaders.
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Unusually, the chasers included race leader and stage 1 winner Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus).
However, having raced flat out for 25km they were caught by a reduced peloton. The bunch then started to reel in the early breakaway.
That escape had been reduced from six to four. It proved no match for the bunch once it began chasing properly. And with about 40km remaining, the race was back together.
The finale began in earnest about 5km later when Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) drilled a pace up the final ascent of the day; a cat 1.
Fuglsang would pull clear with his own team mate Sergei Chernetski, who was 2nd to van der Poel on the opening stage. And the Astana pair had Alberto Bettiol (BMC) for company.
The racing behind saw the field split to pieces, with Nicolas Roche making it into a small chase group as BMC caused the splits that saw few men standing at the end.
Van der Poel found himself in what remained of the bunch. It would then split and he was caught on the wrong side of that fracture.
Up front, Roche’s group caught the three leaders with just 5km remaining.
BMC had three men in what was now a lead group of 13. The team put in several attacks - Michael Schär particularly aggressive – but the stage came down to a sprint.
Sprint for stage victory
Colin Joyce won the sprint from the breakaway. The young American riding for Rally Cycling scored a big victory after 195km into Kjøllefjord.
Danilo Wyss was best of the BMC men in 4th. Roche came over the line 10th of the 11 riders credited with the same time.
That moved him up to 8th overall, from 20th starting today. And he now trails the new race leader Chernetski by 33 seconds.
There are two stages remaining and based on the evidence thus far, Nicolas Roche has bounced back very nicely from the illness that ended his Tour of Poland after three stages last week.
He would be down less time had he not been caught behind a crash in the group sprinting for victory yesterday. The Irish rider was held up and lost 25 seconds.
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