Kiwi cyclist Corbin Strong surprises climbers to retain Arctic Tour of Norway lead
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PHOTOSPORT
Kiwi cyclist Corbin Strong has shocked the recognised climbers in the field to retain his lead on the Arctic Race of Norway after three stages.
Known for his track exploits, Strong grabbed the lead in a sprint on the opening stage and held it through another sprint stage, despite being caught up in a crash near the finish.
He was expected to concede the raceleader's yellow jersey to Olympic mountain-bike champion Tom Pidcock on the hilly 182.4km third stage, but stuck with the Brit until the finish to preserve a six-second lead into the final day.
"Happy, but we also wanted to try and get the jersey today," Pidcock admitted.
"Corbin did a pretty incredible climb for a sprinter."
"Still a big race on tomorrow, but he's going to be tricky. He's got a strong team and he's going very well.
"It's going to be difficult, but let's see what we can do."
Strong, 25, is a former world points race champion on the track and Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the scratch race.
Last month, he showed his impressive road form with victory at Belgium's Tour de Wollonie, where he also won the opening stage on hills and finished with the leaders over the next four days to edge Czech Mathias Vacek by nine seconds overall.
His Israel Premier Tech team have two other riders in the Arctic Tour top 10 - American Riley Sheehan in fourth, 31 seconds behind, and Canadian Hugo Houle 37 seconds back in ninth.
Stage four is 135.3km, consisting of eight hill circuits through the town of Tromsø and starting 12.45am Monday NZT.
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