Israel-Premier Tech’s Simon Clarke, who is entering the Arctic Tour of Norway for the first time at 36 years of age, is one of the most prominent names on the startlist heading into the hilly race.
“It’s one of the few races in the cycling calendar I haven’t raced in my career so far,” said Clarke, “and everyone tells me this is a beautiful race to do.”
The Australian comes off a successful Tour de France, during which he won a stage before pulling out because of Covid-19.
“I hope I still have some shape from the Tour left in my legs,” said Clarke. “It’s going to be an unpredictable race. The stages that are not necessarily marked as GC days may end up mixing things up and being decisive.”
Other Australian contenders for the victory include Nick Schultz (BikeExchange-Jayco) fresh off a very impressive Tour de France, and countryman Rudy Porter (Trinity Racing) who will be joining Schultz next year on the Aussie squad.
Porter has raced domestically in Australia for the past few seasons, impressing against top level riders in the Australian summer and winning one of the hardest races on the National Road Series, the Grafton to Inverell, in 2021.
Australian Seb Berwick (Israel Premier Tech) is a chance as well, with the young climber winning a stage of the Alpes Isère Tour earlier in the year. He also finished third overall in the race, one place ahead of Porter in the standings.
Leading the Norweigian bid for overall honours, Andreas Leknessund is at the head of Team DSM bid after a pretty good performance in the Tour de France.
“I’ve had a few easy weeks to recover,” said Leknessund, “and I frankly don’t know where I am at, but it’s been a good season for me so far and fighting for the GC should be a realistic goal.”
Two Norwegian development teams, Team Coop and Uno-X Pro Cycling Team, come with well-rounded squads. The 2022 Critérium du Dauphiné’s best young rider Tobias Halland Johannessen leads the latter.
“To be racing on home soil is such a special feeling,” said Johannessen. “It doesn’t happen too often for us Norwegians, so this Arctic Race of Norway is a cool opportunity we look forward too. Whoever wants to win here will need a very strong team around him.
“Tomorrow, for instance, many things can happen along the way and it will be necessary to be near the front the whole time. At Uno-X we have more than one card to play, and I think that’s the best way to approach this race.”
The weather forecast, cold and wet, will also have a say on how the competition unfolds over the next four days.
“It’s going to make the race harder,” says Yannick Talabardon, technical director of the Arctic Race of Norway, going on to lay out what a path to victory for a GC rider would look like. “First, he shouldn’t lose any time in the first two days, which are meant to be sprint stages.
“Then comes the uphill finish on Saturday, with some steep hills spilt over the route and a final climb which is relatively gentle when compared to the ones we had in previous years. The real moment to attack and win the race, though, is the final stage in Trondheim. It ends with four laps over a short circuit inside the city that features a very steep climb.”
Arctic Race of Norway on SBS On Demand - August 11-14
Stage 1 MO I RANA > MO I RANA
09:20pm - 12:00am AEST
LIVE on SBS On Demand
Stage 2 MOSJØEN > BRØNNØYSUND
09:20pm - 12:00am AEST
LIVE on SBS On Demand
Stage 3 NAMSOS > SKALLSTUGGU SUMMIT
09:30pm - 02:20am AEST
LIVE on SBS On Demand
Stage 4 TRONDHEIM > TRONDHEIM
10:00pm - 02:20am AEST
LIVE on SBS On Demand
