Sky's Moscon claims first pro win, takes lead at Arctic Race of Norway

KORGFJELLET, Norway—Team Sky took its second straight win and keeps the blue and orange leaders jersey in house, but switches it from yesterday’s stage 2 winner Danny van Poppel (NED) to Gianni Moscon (ITA) on the 160km queen stage with just one day remaining in 2016 Arctic Race of Norway (UCI 2.HC).

The 22-year-old Italian powered up the steepest section of the 8.9-kilometre climb to claim his first pro win on an uphill finish 11 seconds in front of Dutchman Stef Clement (IAM Cycling) and 24 seconds over fellow Italian Oscar Gatto (Tinkoff).

“When you pass the line to win your first pro race, it’s an incredible feeling,” Moscon told media after the race. “I’m very happy for this win. I wanted to win today. I knew I have a good shape at the moment.

“This victory is good for the morale and for the last part of the season. It’s the fruit of a great teamwork today.”

Moscon, who finished fourth in the under-23 world road race championships last year, also lifts the white jersey for the best young rider off of the 23-year-old van Poppel, who remains in the green jersey atop the points classification. Van Poppel was clear in his post-race interview on Friday he had no intentions of keeping the lead and would be riding in full support of his teammates with general classification ambitions, such as Moscon.

The possibly decisive stage 3 was nearly stolen by a four-man break on the second of four categorised climbs on the day.

Italian Daniel Oss (BMC Racing), Irishman Matt Brammeier (Dimension Data) and Australians Steele von Hoff (One Pro Cycling) and Leigh Howard (IAM Pro Cycling) launched an attack on the Bustness Summitt with 116km to go. The quartet worked in unison before being caught on the Korgfjellet climb midway through to the uphill finish.

While former two-time Madison world champion Howard had yet to see the Rio Olympics team pursuit finals, the day’s most active rider told Eurosport pre-race that he was motivated by his compatriot’s silver medal finish to new world record holder Great Britain.

Two-time Australian criterium champion von Hoff told Eurosport afterwards he was also thinking of the team pursuit finals, but for different reasons.

“I actually thought about last night’s team pursuit for a while,” admitted von Hoff. “The four of us were rotating around on the break and we were absolutely jamming it at the end going as hard as we could … so that’s pretty much what it was.

“You had to try to time your swing back in pretty perfectly, otherwise you’d end up gapped.”

The new race leader stands a good chance to take GC with the fourth and final stage expecting to end in a bunch sprint following three low-categorised climbs in the first half of the 193km route from Polarsirkelen to Bodø on Sunday.

“To lead the Arctic Race of Norway is very nice,” said Moscon. “It’s my first time in Norway but I’ll come again. It’s a really nice country. It’s an important race, very well organized with a lot of big teams taking part.

“Every race I go to, I give my best,” he concluded. “I’ve had this mentality since I started cycling and I want to continue this way.”

Stage 3 Classification

1. Gianni Moscon, ITA, Team Sky, 4:00:09

2. Stef Clement, NED, IAM Cycling, 0:11

3. Oscar Gatto, ITA, Tinkoff, 0:24

General Classification

1. Gianni Moscon, ITA, Team Sky, 12:56:17

2. Stef Clement, NED, IAM Cycling, 0:15

3. Oscar Gatto, ITA, Tinkoff, 0:30

Classification Leaders

Race Leader (Blue Jersey): Gianni Moscon, ITA, Team Sky

Points Leader (Green Jersey): Danny van Poppel, NED, Team Sky

Mountains leader (Salmon Jersey): Tom van Asbroeck, BEL, Team LottoNL-Jumbo

Best Young Rider (White Jersey): Gianni Moscon, ITA, Team Sky

Teams classification: Team Sky, 38:50:27