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2015 Arctic Race of Norway: Dillier consoles BMC with Stage 4 win, Taaramae takes overall

Denied a win on both Saturday and Sunday's stages of the 2015 Arctic Race of Norway, Estonian Rein Taaramae took solace in grabbing overall victory in his second consecutive stage race.

August 16, 2015
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Denied a win on both Saturday and Sunday’s stages of the 2015 Arctic Race of Norway, Estonian Rein Taaramae took solace in grabbing overall victory in his second consecutive stage race. Taaramae took the Vuelta a Burgos title earlier in August. BMC’s Ben Hermans (Belgium) couldn’t hold onto his blue and orange leader’s jersey after one day, but succour came in the form of Swiss teammate Silvan Dillier’s stage win.

The day’s first intermediate sprint was too early in the stage for a breakaway to be allowed to form. Stage 1 winner Alexander Kristoff (Norway/Katusha) took the honours, and the tension slackened enough that a seven-rider escape including Cofidis’s Estonian vowel-king Gert Jõeäär ripped away soon after. Martin Elmiger (Switzerland/IAM) crested the first categorized climb of the day in the lead.

The race was heading towards three finishing circuits in Narvik for a total of 43-km. BMC did the yeoman’s work at the front of the peloton to keep the septet within reach, with Europcar contributing. By the time the race had entered the circuits and the gap was only 30-seconds, the escape was down to a trio.

With 28-km remaining and the peloton still reeling in the last resistance, UnitedHealthcare’s Davide Frattini took off but couldn’t stay away. Once the catch was made, August Jensen flashed out from the reduced peloton to summit the day’s second categorized climb and tie his Coop-ØsterHus teammate Harvard Blikra for the mountains classification lead.

Katusha kept the pace high going into the second circuit, but several attacks flared anyway. A dangerous move containing second place Taaramae tore loose and race leader Ben Hermans (Belgium/BMC), having just chased back on after a mechanical, had to pursue on his own. Taaramae had Ilnur Zakarin (Russia/Katusha) and Dillier, Hermans’ teammate, with him.

With 7-km to go and trailing by 45-seconds, Hermans threw in the towel. When the trio hit the final climb of the day, Taaramae fell back. Dillier was only 17-seconds behind Taaramae at the start of the day, Zakarin 34-seconds back. But the Estonian, no vowel-slouch himself, fought his way back to the Russo-Swiss alliance with 5.5-km remaining.

Dillier made the kick to the line and Zakarin was his closest competitor for the win.

2015 Arctic Race of Norway Stage 4
1) Silvan Dillier (Switzerland/BMC) 3:35:18
2) Ilnur Zakarin (Russia/Katusha) s.t.
3) Rein Taaramae (Estonia/Astana) +0:02

2015 Arctic Race of Norway Final GC
1) Rein Taaramae (Estonia/Astana) 16:42:02
2) Silvan Dillier (Switzerland/BMC) +0:18
3) Ilnur Zakarin (Russia/Katusha) +0:31