1st June – Stage 4: Stavanger – Stavanger
Awaiting the peloton on the final day of racing in Norway was the traditional circuit route around Stavanger, with the punchy Grisabakken climb the difficulty of the stage. A break of four established itself early on, while Team Picnic PostNL remained in the peloton, hoping to keep a GC charge with Tobias Lund Andresen open; knowing that they would have to take bonus seconds out on the road.
Unfortunately the break rode well and swept up all of the intermediate points, but the team rallied well and helped to close them down before the finish. It was a hectic sprint finale and Lund Andresen surfed the wheels as best as he could after being dropped off by the team in the final few kilometres. Coming from deep, he showed good speed to get up and take third on the stage; and with that vault up to fourth on GC, while Bjoern Koerdt ended 12th – making it two Team Picnic PostNL riders in the top 15.
Lund Andresen said: “We wanted to keep the option open to take bonus seconds during the stage. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible, so we switched our aim towards fully going for the stage. We controlled the whole way and the boys kept me in a good position on the climb. It was a bit of a hectic sprint, but I did what I could to finish in the top three to move up to fourth on GC. I’m happy with the teamwork today.”