Nordhaug wins for Sky in Mallorca

Nordhaug and team mate Luis Henao went into the final climb of the race along with Jakob Fuglsang and Tiago Machado of RadioShack-Nissan, Movistar's Rui Costa, Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Brian Bulgac (Lotto-Belisol) but it was the Norwegian who pulled clear to take his first win since 2009.

“I’ve been waiting for a victory for the team for a long time," Nordhaug. "I’ve been feeling strong in a lot of races but I’ve been training hard this winter. Bobby Julich took over as my personal coach in November and he has been doing a great job. I have a lot of self-confidence at the moment. And I felt great today.

“The riders around me were strong but I had super legs myself. I didn’t see any reason why I was not able to win. I was making the race for myself today. I was the first to attack on the Coll de Soller and then again on the second to last climb. On the last little climb when I saw those guys were standing still I just went as hard as I could to the finish.

“Sergio Henao did a great job too. We were working together well. He attacked first and then I went. It was good that he was in the group behind. The other guys were probably unsure of what they were going to do as he was sitting in their wheels and strong.”

Movistar's Costa took second place at 26 aseconds with Henao third a further 2 seconds behind.

"The team we had brought here was rather strong," said Costa after the race, "with [Jose Joaquin] Rojas, who had won here last year, and [Alejandro] Valverde, so we had many chances to win. We tried to race in a different way, but I couldn't reward the team with the victory and I feel sorry about that.

"The two RadioShacks and the two Sky riders were attacking all the way and I always had to go past them, it was the four against me. There was a point where I had to let someone go. Nordhaug did a nice attack, went apart and at the end I could get second, which is a really important result for me at this point of the season.

French rider Cyril Lemoine (Saur-Sojasun) was rushed to hospital after a bad fall during the final stages of the Trofeo Deia his team confirmed after the race. Lemoine underwent emergency surgery after breaking two ribs and bruising his lungs and kidney.

The Mallorca Challenge concludes Wednesday with the 160km Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana.

Trofeo Deia: 151km

1 Lars Peter Nordhaug (Nor) Sky 3:55:27
2 Rui Costa (Por) Movistar 0:00:26
3 Sergio Henao (Col) Sky 0:00:28
4 Jakob Fulsang (Den) RadioShack-Nissan 0:00:35
5 Tiago Machado (Por) RadioShack-Nissan 0:00:45
6 Salvatore Puccio (Ita) Sky 0:00:57
7 Xavier Florencio (Spa) Katusha Team
8 Jeremie Galland (Fra) Saur-Sojasun
9 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC
10 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Omega Pharma-Quick Step

Australians:

120 John Anderson (Aus) Endura 0:19:52
130 Jonathan Cantwell (Aus) Saxo Bank 0:20:13