The 22-year-old Colombian capitalised on his teammates’ excellent work and is now second overall at the Tour of Norway.
Alvaro Hodeg had to wait more than three months to put his arms again in the air, but that made his victory at the Tour of Norway even more special, at the end of a stage two (Kvinesdal – Mandal, 174 kilometers) which had the same ingredients as the previous day: a furious chase behind the breakaway, a late catch and a mad dash to the line. Alvaro mastered this perfectly with the help of a bullet-proof team that guided him through the technical final kilometer, coming out on top on Wednesday afternoon.
After being pulled into position by an excellent Davide Martinelli, Hodeg came off the Italian’s wheel with 200 meters to go and unleashed a brutal acceleration, fending off home riders Kristoffer Halvorsen (Team Ineos), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) and Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) and surging to his second success of the season, following the one he claimed on the second day of the Tour Colombia in February.
“I was searching for this win for quite some time now and finally getting it feels so special. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my teammates, who did a tremendous job the entire day, chasing the escapees and protecting me. We knew that the last corner was the most important and made sure of entering first there, before opening my sprint. It wasn’t easy, especially as the stage was hard and many teams were interested in fighting for the win, but we pulled it off and that gives us more confidence for the rest of the race”, an elated Alvaro said after becoming the first Colombian rider to get a stage win at the Tour of Norway and getting his hands on the best young rider jersey.
Wednesday’s victory was the 31st since the start of the season for Deceuninck – Quick-Step, who tasted success through eleven riders in twelve different countries across four continents, and continues to lead the UCI World Team Ranking.
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen/ Getty Images
