Tinkoff-Saxo’s Michael Kolar placed 4th behind Sam Bennett on stage 2 of Arctic Race of Norway. Following a keen leadout from team stagiaire Michael Gogl, Kolar launched his sprint from afar but lost positions on the final 300 meters.    

After the stage 2 finish, team sports director Sean Yates says that he noticed improvements on the stage.

“Once again Michael Gogl did a very good job and made a strong leadout for Michael Kolar, who was obviously feeling better than yesterday. Today was more straightforward than yesterday although we witnessed a fast sprint and run-in towards the finish line. The break went early, Katusha and IAM controlled the race and we focused on delivering Kolar in a good position”, says Sean Yates and adds:

“Gogl brought Kolar to the front going into the final kilometer. That took a lot of energy. We can see that Kolar began losing a bit of energy with 300 meters to go after a hard approach to the sprint but today was definitely a much better team effort than yesterday”.

The 155km stage 2 saw Sam Bennett (Bora) take the sprint win before the race heads into the decisive third day, where the riders will face a 3.7km uphill finish.

“Today was not that eventful, it was quite tough though, but tomorrow will obviously be harder with the summit finish. Kristoff is still in the race lead with Boasson Hagen breathing down his neck. We’ll see the riders gunning for the GC coming to the fore tomorrow and we’ll try to stay put in the finale”, finishes Sean Yates.