Full of motivation after claiming his first pro win on the previous stage, Jesper Hansen defended his overall lead in the only uphill finish of the Tour of Norway. After a demanding day of work for his Tinkoff-Saxo teammates controlling dangerous breakaways, Hansen initiated the final array of attacks to finish 4th on the penultimate stage.
 
Coming off the back of a prominent solo win on stage 3, Jesper Hansen successfully defended his yellow jersey finishing 5 seconds behind winner Amets Txurruka but extending his overall lead to Boasson Hagen. Tinkoff-Saxo sports director Nicki Sørensen was satisfied with the effort made.

“Jesper rode a good finale after a big effort from the team to control the stage. Jesper stuck to the script and he did well in defending his lead. We had planned that he should try to win the stage if he could sense that his rivals were in difficulties. After the stage he said that he saw a good moment to accelerate but it might have been just a bit to early”, says Nicki Sørensen about Hansen’s attack with 1.2km to go on the uphill finish to Geilo.
 
“But his attack created gaps in the group of favorites and as a result he was able to gain nine seconds on Boasson Hagen ahead of tomorrow’s final stage. The overall win is within reach but it’s not over yet and we remain very focused on the task that awaits tomorrow”, adds Nicki Sørensen.

However, securing the successful defense of the jersey on the 167km stage 4 from Rjukan to Geilo had required laborious work from the entire squad, underlines Nicki Sørensen.
 
“The guys had to work very hard to defend the jersey today. Today, in contrast to earlier stages, we saw several breakaways with dangerous riders that posed a threat in the GC. Our job was to control these breakaways but it’s definitely not an easy thing to do in a race, where you only have six guys on the team. At some point I must admit that I got a bit edgy but the guys worked very well together. Tomorrow, we’ll have to do that again as it requires a complete team effort to bring home the win”, finishes Nicki Sørensen.