Powerful victory from Thibau Nys at Voss

In the scorching heat and beautiful summer weather in lovely Voss, the peloton set off on the 142-kilometer-long first stage of this year's Tour of Norway. A hilly stage with a climb of nearly 4 kilometers at an average gradient of 6% up to the finish at Voss Resort would be decisive in determining who took the first victory.

After barely a kilometer, a group of seven riders broke away from the peloton, quickly establishing a lead of over a minute. The seven hopefuls for the day were: Timo Roosen (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Lennert Teugels (Bingoal WB), Abram Stockman (TDT – Unibet), Filip Reha (ATT Investments), Samuel Boardman (Project Echelon Racing), Halvor Utengen Sandstad (Team Coop – Repsol), and Eirik Vang Aas (Norwegian National Team).

Despite the seven breakaway riders working well together, they never managed to gain a substantial gap from the chasing peloton.

With 68 kilometers remaining, the breakaway entered the first categorized climb of the day to Drevtjørn, and the gap had grown to 1:30 to the peloton led by Lidl-Trek.

Timo Roosen (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL) had to drop from the breakaway at the base of the Drevtjørn climb, falling back to the peloton before ultimately abandoning the stage.

There was a proper sprint battle for the mountain points among the breakaway companions, with Eirik Vang Aas (Norwegian National Team) eventually coming out on top at the first-category climb, securing 10 points in the fight for the mountain jersey. Aas crossed the summit just ahead of his compatriot from Team Coop – Repsol, Halvor Utengen Sandstad, who took 9 points. Filip Reha (ATT Investments), Samuel Boardman (Project Echelon Racing), Lennert Teugels (Bingoal WB), and Abram Stockman (TDT – Unibet) took 8, 7, 6, and 5 points respectively.

On the next categorized climb to Skjervsfossen, it was once again Vang Aas who proved to be the strongest, thus securing the KOM-jersey ahead of tomorrow's second stage.

The breakaway did their best to stay ahead, but 4 kilometers from the finish, they were caught by the peloton, which would decide the victory in the final climb up to Voss Resort.

Uno-X Mobility took control at the base of the climb and set up a fast pace at the front. The pre-stage favorite, Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), broke away within the last kilometer along with his teammate Mathias Vacek, comfortably holding the lead all the way to the finish line. The young Belgian secured his second victory in the Tour of Norway, after also winning the second stage to Ullandhaug last year. He won the stage to Voss Resort ahead of Norwegian Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility) and Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) leads both the overall and the youth classification after today's stage, while Eirik Vang Aas (Norwegian National Team) will wear the KOM-jersey on tomorrow's stage.