News

The Arctic Race of Norway is the most northern race on the entire calendar, and since the first edition was held in 2013, it offers spectacular arctic landscapes during the four days of racing. The race, which was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 health crisis, returns in 2021 with a novelty: for the first time it leaves the Norwegian borders, as the Finnish village of Kilpisjärvi welcomes the finish of the second stage.

Route

The first two stages can end with some kind of sprint, although the final circuit of the first one includes a 1.2 km at 8% climb that the cyclists will have to overcome three times, the last one just 2.5 km from the finish line. The second stage, with the finish line in Finland, is the most obvious arrival for the sprinters, while stages 3 and 4 will decide the GC. The third stage finishes on the top of Målselv (3.1 km at 8.9%) and can be considered the queen stage, while the fourth also ends with three laps of a circuit that includes a climb, in this case Novkollen (1.8 km 4.6%).

Favorites

With only 3 days to go, there are still many teams to confirm their lineups. At the moment, the main stars in the start list are Alexander Kristoff (600), who will defend the colors of the Norwegian national team for the race, and Warren Barguil (400), who in the 2019 edition was second after Alexey Lutsenko (600) due to the bonus seconds that the Kazakh got in the last stage.

Other important riders are the Belgian pave specialist Oliver Naesen (600), the sprinters Clément Venturini (400), Bryan Coquard (600), Rudy Barbier (400) and Christophe Laporte (400), or the Giro d’Italia 2021 stage winner Victor Lafay (400).

It might also be a good idea to load up our team with Norwegian riders as they tend to shine, as Odd Christian Eiking (200) demonstrated in 2019, when he claimed a stage win and the KOM jersey.