Lutsenko in attack, most aggressive rider in Arctic Race of Norway Stage 1
At the end of the day Lutsenko finished 9th in sprint, but thanks to 7 bonus seconds, won at the intermediate sprints he moved up to the 2nd position in the general classification, just 3 seconds behind Mathieu Van der Poel, who won stage 1.
«I am happy with the way I did this stage as I tried my best and almost everything, we planned for today, we achieved. The team was super strong today and I thank my teammates for a great support. I feel myself in a good form, so let’s see what we can do in the next stages,» said Alexey Lutsenko.
«I think we did a good race with all team. It was our plan to fight for bonus seconds and Alexey Lutsenko showed his legs today in the best possible way. Hugo Houle and Magnus Cort worked very well to protect Lutsenko and to help him win some seconds. Alexey did a few strong attacks; in a moment he went away in a group of 4 riders. It was a good move, but the group caught them back. Anyway, after the finish Alexey won a prize as the most aggressive rider, now he is second in GC and we are looking forward to the next days,» said Dmitriy Fofonov, sports manager of Astana Pro Team.
The Arctic Race of Norway started Friday with stage 1 from Å to Leknes of 181 km. The stage exploded with attack of Alexey Lutsenko with around 30 km to go. For several times the Kazakh champion tried to animate the race and to avoid a bunch sprint. However, everything ended with a sprint from a reduced group of leaders, won by Van der Poel.
Stage 2 of the race will be held Aug 16: 164 km from Henningsvaer to Svolvaer.