VN news ticker: Mads Pedersen powers to win at Tour of Norway, Tobias Johannessen wins Tour de l'Avenir

Mads Pedersen powers to win at Tour of Norway, Ethan Hayter defends GC lead

Mads Pedersen attacked, was caught, then sprinted for victory in stage 3 of the Tour of Norway on Saturday.

Pedersen kicked out of the bunch at 20km to go in an attempted lone flyer only to be reeled in after grinding out a 30-second gap. The Trek-Segafredo rouleur recovered, rallied and then sprinted from the front of a small group to beat Alexander Kristoff (UAE Emirates) and Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma) in the Jørpeland finish.

“I was suffering like a pig the last five kilometers, but Mattias (Skjelmose) and Julien (Bernard) did a really good job to keep me out of trouble and keep believing in me and my sprint, and I am just happy I can finish it off,” Pedersen said.

Tobias Johannessen wins Tour de l’Avenir

Remember the name Tobias Johannessen, because you’re likely to be hearing it a lot in the future.

Johannessen, 21, limited the damage of a huge attack from Carlos Rodriguez on the final stage of the Tour de l’Avenir on Sunday to secure GC victory at the prestigious development race.

The Norweigan rider Johannessen won two stages of the nine-day race and hit the podium a further three times to edge Ineos-Grenadiers rider Rodriguez out of overall victory. Johannessen is riding for Uno-X Development team in 2o21 and will step up to the senior squad in 2022.

Rodriguez made a huge effort to overturn his slim overnight deficit on the summit finish to Col du Petit Saint-Bernard on Sunday. The Spaniard did enough to win the stage, but couldn’t shake the defiant Johannessen. The Norweigan ace now joins a prestigious list of winners of the Tour de l’Avenir, including Egan Bernal, Tadej Pogačar and Miguel Ángel López.