Team dsm-firmenich power to sprint win with Alberto Dainese at Arctic Race of Norway

Controlling proceedings and setting out their stall, Team dsm-firmenich were rewarded after a hard day of work with Alberto Dainese surging to stage victory in the town of Alta.

From the flag drop Team dsm-firmenich set out with intent as Romain Combaud and Jonas Iversby Hvideberg took control at the front of the bunch, setting tempo behind the break. Working well as a group all day, the gap to those out front ticked down and things were back together heading into the last ten kilometres. Kevin Vermaerke and Matt Dinham shut down dangerous moves, all while keeping fast finisher Dainese safe. With the late attacker caught, the team brought Dainese forward who then surfed the wheels in the closing kilometre. Biding his time and finding a gap in the chaos, Dainese launched a vicious sprint and surged past the opposition to take a brilliant win for Team dsm-firmenich.

A delighted Dainese said: “I’ve had some time off racing after the Giro but have been training well. We had some pressure today as a team as I was one of the only sprinters from the WorldTour teams, so I felt that pressure to deliver. It’s a shame we lost Andreas before the start today with illness, but he said to me that I had to win today now. All the guys were really strong as the circuit was not easy to be at the front. In the sprint I was around 15th place with 300 metres to go but found some space and then could pass everyone. I’m really happy to finish it off for the guys. It was nice to be back with the team again after a couple of months training at home, so it’s a good way to start my next racing block. It’s really nice to be in the leader’s jersey but of course I don’t think I’ll keep it until Sunday, but hopefully we can keep it in the team as we have Kevin and Matt who are going well after the Tour de France. We will see how it goes in the next days.”

Team dsm-firmenich coach Luke Roberts added: “It was an unfortunate start to the day with Andreas’ fever coming back and not able to start the race, so we were down to five guys. We knew that today was a good chance for Alberto but we knew it would be difficult to control and expected some aggressive racing on the local laps. It was a difficult one for us to control, particularly when we wanted to keep guys up on the GC too. Romain did an incredible job today riding on the front into the headwind and keeping the race under control. It was then our plan on the final laps to have the guys cover certain moves and then try and set up Alberto up for the sprint. Alberto was able to finish it off nicely and it’s nice to see him take another win. It’s a good start to the race for all of us, so we’re looking forward to the days to come.”