Maciej Paterski finished off a determined performance by the CCC Polsat team when he wrestled the leader's jersey off Marc De Maar's shoulders on the final day of the race. The Pole attacked on a short steep climb with 2km to go and rode hard all the way to the finish to make sure that the race leader never rejoined them. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) showed impressive strength to bridge the gap and finally take a sprint win from the small group.

Already yesterday Maciej Paterski had tried hard to crack race leader Marc De Maar (UnitedHealthCare) in the hardest stage of the Tour of Norway but the strong rider from Curacao had used a combination of strength and luck to defend his leader's jersey. However, Paterski refused to give up and he headed into today's final stage of the race with the clear plan of launching one final attack on the race leader.

Paterski hid in the peloton for most of the stage but when the peloton hit the finishing circuit in Hønefoss, he showed his intentions. The circuit included a short, steep climb whose summit was located just 1km from the finish and he asked his CCC Polsat teammates to set a brutal pace.

Their hard work brought back most of the early escape, with only Sebastien Reichenbac (IAM) staying ahead, and they whittled down the peloton to just the strongest riders. With some help from their rival teams, they neutralized a dangerous attack from Lars Petter Nordhaug (Belkin) and when they hit the climb for the final time, all was ready for Paterski to kick ito action.

The Pole launched his expected move and initially only Gerald Ciolek (MTN Qhubeka) could match follow him. They caught Reichenbach on the top and with De Maar being back in the peloton, Paterski rode hard to try to stay away.

Bjørn Tore Hoem (Sparebanken) and Jean-Pierre Drucker (Wanty) were the first to bridge the gap while behind Bauke Mollema (Belkin) was chasing as hard as he could in the small yellow jersey group. Alexander Kristoff saw that the stage win was riding away from him and the Norwegian did a fabulous job to bridge across with Peio Bilbao (Caja Rural).

It was now a battle between Paterski and Mollema as De Maar was apparently unable to do any work. The Pole emerged as the strongest and his group stayed away to contest the stage win.

The slightly uphill sprint suited Kristoff down to the ground and it was no surprise to see the big Norwegian easily beat Drucker and Ciolek. Paterski rolled across the line in 4th and as Sondre Holst Enger (Sparebanken) led the yellow jersey group across the line with a 6-second time deficit, Paterski took the overall victory ahead of De Maar and Mollema.

With two stage wins, Kristoff won the points competition while Amund Grøndahl (Sparebanken) took the KOM jersey. Jesper Hansen (Tinkoff-Saxo) was best young rider while IAM won the teams classification.

Racing in Norway continues next week when many of the same teams will be back in action in the 5-dy Tour des Fjords while will be held in the spring for the first time after the inaugural edition took place last autumn.

All still to play for

Yesterday's hardest stage of the Tour of Norway failed to create much selection between the best climbers and so all was still to play for ahead of today's final stage which brought the riders over 165km from Gjøvik to the traditional finish in Hønefoss. The stage was made up of a hilly first part that included a tough climb at the 45km mark a flat second part and four laps of a finishing circuit. The latter was a very tough one as it included the short, steep climb of Eggemoen and for the first time ever the race ended at the top of that brutal ascent.

With the lumpy profile and many continental teams eager to make their mark, it was no surprise that the race was off to an incredibly fast start after the riders had taken off under rainy conditions. Sondre Sørtveit (FixIT), Phan-Åge Haugaard and Andreas Landa (both Frøy) were the only non-starters.

Kristoff wins the sprint

The attacking kept going all the way to the first intermediate sprint but no one had been able to establish a significant gap at that point. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) beat Gerald Ciolek (MTN) and Robert Förster (UnitedHealthCare) in the dash to the line to increase his lead in the points competition while Ciolek moved into the provisional 7th on GC.

Shortly after that point, the elastic snapped when 7 riders took off and they started to open a gap. At the 58km mark, Omar Fraile (Caja Rural), Nico Sijmens (Wanty), Sebastien Reichenbach (IAM), Filip Eidsheim (FixIT), Sergei Klimov (Rusvelo), Marcus Karlsson (Ringeriks) and Anders Kristoffersen (Motiv) were already 3.45 ahead and the gap kept growing. After 85km of racing, they had extended their advantage to 6.45.

MTN lead the chase

Ciolek had shown great form and so MTN-Qhubeka started to chase. They soon got some assistance from Katusha and later also CCC and the hard pace set by those three teams saw the gap start to come down. With 61km to go it was 5.40 but the real difference was made when they hit the short climb for the first time.

CCC put down the hammer and several riders dropped off the pace. With 50km to go, they already had the gap down to 3.05 as they continued to set a brutal pace in the hilly terrain.

The break splits up

The second time up the climb, the attacking started in the front group. Initially, they were down to just three riders but when the dust had settled, only Karlsson and Kristoffersen had been left behind.

On the finishing straight, Sijmens attacjed ad he started the penultimate lap as the lone leader. Behind Enger was struggling as Belkin had now decided to put down the hammer.

Nordhaug attacks

While Sijmens was again caught by his chasers, Sep Vanmarcke, Step Clement, and Paul Martens did dome serious damage in the main group. As they hit the climb for the penultimate time with 16km to go, the break was in sight and so Reichenback took off.

The rest of the group was caught while Nordhaug launched a strong attack. Kristoff tried to joj him but soon cracked, leaving the Norwegian to press on on his own.

Nordhaug is caught

Tinkoff-Saxo, Caja Rural and CCC started to chase behind the local hero while further up Reichenbach was doing an impressive job to maintain a 20-second advantage. With 8km to go, Kristoffer Skjerping (Joker-Merida) attacked and soon joined Nordhaug,

Branislau Samoilau did a fantastic job for CCC to catch the pair just 6km from the line. Angel Madrazo and Marco Haller took some short turns for Caja Rural and Katusha before Norddhaug took over the pace-setting.

Nordhaug led the peloton onto the climb where Paterski and Ciolek attacked. They bridged the gap to Reichenbach at the top and from there the scene was set for an exciting and nerve-wracking finale.