Arctic Race of Norway Stage 4 - 165Km - Narvik/Narvik *contains unmasked spoilers*

Melodeon

The race's final stage starts and finishes in Narvik, running out into the countryside for 125Km followed by 3 laps around the city:



There are 3 classified climbs, with the final 1 (2) being traversed 4 times during the finale.
It's 2.3Km long at 6.6%, so is no joke at that end of the stage:



There's a pretty decent descent to just before the finish, which could very well play a part in how it all pans out:



The top 6 are within 30 seconds of each other, but Sam Bennett has slipped to 104th place at +10'44" so is unlikely to make an impact on GC:



Odd things seen yesterday: yet another band, this time rather conventionally stood at the roadside, someone on a mountain bike making a passable attempt at holding station with the peloton while doing a wheelie, and Batman on an electric unicycle!


Live coverage on Eurosport from 4pm.

MPFGLB

Melodeon you are obviously a very good previewer whose talents I feel were not given sufficient scope to eb appreciated during a very short (though entertaining) race like this Artic Race of Norway

I hope you will consider doing some Vuelata previews where I am sure your skills will have a more comprehensive and participatory audience

Beasty

I agree that Melodeon's efforts on this race have been excellent

MPFGLB wrote: »

I hope you will consider doing some Vuelata previews where I am sure your skills will have a more comprehensive and participatory audience

Just on this, we tend to rely heavily on a couple of posters to start stage threads, and it would be greatly appreciated if we could spread the load a little. If posters like reading and contributing to the threads, there's no monopoly on this so why not start one and give those guys who do it regularly a bit of a break. Stage threads tend to be opened up the evening before the stage

Melodeon

Hurray, some replies!

Thanks for the compliments folks.
I've been greatly enjoying the thread previews other people have been posting and thinking that I should really do an odd one now and again, but was hesitant to jump in during the big important races.
I figured this one mightn't be a bad one to give it a try, with no great consequences if I made a balls of it

Assembling the images and composing a bit of waffle on them is easy enough, but I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the riders and teams so I'd be at a bit of a loss when it comes to populating a poll with likely stage winners or offering informed comment on what team principles are up to or the like.

Also, I almost always end up watching these races/stages after work, so wouldn't be in a position to participate in the threads 'live'

happytramp

Melodeon wrote: »

Assembling the images and composing a bit of waffle on them is easy enough, but I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the riders and teams so I'd be at a bit of a loss when it comes to populating a poll with likely stage winners or offering informed comment on what team principles are up to or the like.

Often the most interesting discussion (arguing ) happens after the stage so you'd still have plenty of time to weigh in.

Also you can always pilfer the more technical stuff (rider odds/list of climb percentages etc) from the cyclingnews.com stage previews.

gordongekko

How did this finish?

MPFGLB

Melodeon wrote: »

Also, I almost always end up watching these races/stages after work, so wouldn't be in a position to participate in the threads 'live'

I wouldn't worry about that . Some of the old codgers on here have been dead for ages they just can't give up :pac:

MPFGLB

gordongekko wrote: »

How did this finish?

Tim Wellens won GC again this year

Manuelle Quinziato won the stage from a breakaway