Lafay triumphs on Arctic Race of Norway summit finish

Victor Lafay won Stage 3 of the Arctic Race of Norway, triumphing after attacking on the steepest slopes of the finishing climb to take the win.

Victor Lafay (Cofidis) had come to the Arctic Race of Norway with some unfinished business from last year, when he was third on the queen stage and the final GC. On this 2022 edition, though, the French rider has managed to triumph atop the summit finish to Skallstuggu to claim his second victory as a professional rider and the Midnight Sun jersey off the shoulders of his Cofidis teammate Axel Zingle.

A group of eight riders led by Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-Samsic) and Hugo Houle (Israel-PremierTech) finished just three seconds behind Lafay and will be his main challengers for the overall win tomorrow in Trondheim.

It took quite a while for the breakaway to be established, with a lot of skirmishing between the teams to make the early move, with a one stage a grup of 20 up the road. Five riders proved the most interested in committing, with Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert), Maurice Ballerstedt (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Tom Wirtgen (Bingoal-Pauwels Sauces-WB) and Håkon Aalrust (Team Coop) going clear as the two main contenders for the Peacock jersey, holder Stephen Bassett (Human Powered Health) and runner-up Aaron Van Poucke (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), neutralized each other’s attacks to finally stay in the bunch.

The overall leader and Midnight Sun jersey-wearer Axel Zingle, had his Cofidis teammates on the front of the peloton as the gap got out to a maximum of five and a half minutes. They combined with Intermarche, Israel Premier Tech and BikeExchange-Jayco to bring the break back to the peloton, catching at the base of the final 3.8km climb to Skallstuggu.

Van der Hoorn and Ballerstedt were the last men standing from the early move and as they were swept up on the early slopes, the attacks began from the climbers.

Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) hit the afterburners to separate an elite group of climbers from the peloton. With 2.3km to go, Victor Lafay (Cofidis) put some daylight between himself and the rest of the bunch on the hardest sections which averaged over 10 per cent in gradient. There was a desperate, uncoordinated chase behind, which nearly saw a tiring Lafay caught, but he still had three seconds on the line and celebrated the stage win and moving into the race lead.

Nick Schultz (BikeExchange-Jayco) was the top Australian finisher in eighth, not quite able to go with Lafay when he upped the pace despite being in good position to respond.

Going into the final stage, Lafay has a lead of seven seconds over Vauquelin, with Houle in third, Schultz sits fifth overall, 13 seconds behind.

Watch the final stage of the Arctic Race of Norway from 10.00pm AEST on SBS On Demand.