Here you will find the preliminary start lists for the UCI 1.WWT Team Time Trial and UCI 2.WWT Stage race.
Minor changes in the lists can occur until final start.
Here you will find the preliminary start lists for the UCI 1.WWT Team Time Trial and UCI 2.WWT Stage race.
Minor changes in the lists can occur until final start.
Stage 3, Svinesund-Halden 154 km : No rest in Sunday’s tough final
Sunday’s third- and final stage of the LToN will in no way be any rest day for the riders. The 154 kilometers from the old Svinesund bridge between Norway and Sweden to the finish in Halden is the ”King stage” – or here maybe the ”Queen stage” – of the race.
A lot will be da capo from last years final, but the final circuit in Halden is different and will be new to the riders.
The stage moves out and in of Sweden several times and with the start at the border this is also something special for this day. The first parts goes south to the city of Strömstad and the first KoM is at Daftö Camping just south of the holiday city in Sweden.
When the riders are heading inland after this the terrain gets more undulating. The race is coming back into Norway after 53,4 km. On this stage there is also a special border jersey to fight for. It will be decided after the two border passages after 53,4 and 97,5 km.
There are two more KoM sprints – one in Norway and one in Sweden. The first one at Glende after 59 km is not very hard. The average climb is only 3,5 % over 2,2 km. The last KoM in Sweden is just after the riders have crossed the border again by Vassbotn. The hill up to Stabäckehult is 1,6 km with 4 % average climb.
More difficult is probably the 7 km gravel road to follow on Swedish ground. When this is finished the riders will follow the road between Ed in Sweden and Halden on the way north to the finish. They will cross the border at Kornsjö and also make a small turn through the fortress at Fredriksten before entering the center of Halden.
The final laps around Rødsberget showed themselves to be tough last year and even though they are different this time they can be crucial. This is also the longest stage of the race. The sprint itself is a few meters shorter than last year and a little more narrow.
One year ago it was Megan Guarnier who just outsprinted Marianne Vos and Ellen van Dijk for the stage win.
Who it will be this time is just written in the stars…
The day for the sprinters on Saturday?
Saturday’s 2nd stage between Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg is may be the best chance for the sprinters in this years Ladies Tour of Norway. The 128 kilometers will be races on well known roads for many of the riders, some of the roads used also last year and also for the mens Tour of Norway several times.
The finish is the same as two years ago when Lucinda Brand broke away and won both the stage and the GC.
The start will take place by Fredrikstad stadium in co-operation with Fredrikstad Triathlon being held at the same time. The riders will cross the famous bridge that went up during the race last year, but this time they’ll cross before the real start will happen. So there will be no accidents this time!
The roads towards Saltnes and to Rygge are not very demanding except the KoM coming at Vikane after only 11,6 km. But with an average climb of 5 % over 1,7 km this is really nothing for the worlds best female riders.
At Råde they will face the first intermediate sprint of the day at Karlshus after 52 km. Then they’ll turn inland by Missingmyr and taking on the road through Svinddal before they’re heading south again via Trøsken to the finishing city of Sarpsborg.
The final circuit has been used earlier, but not by LToN. The second passage of the finish line is the second intermediate sprint of the day, coming after 108 km with 20 km to go.
The sprint is well known both from LToN and Tour of Norway. A slight uphill towards the line makes it a little more demanding than a flat sprint.
In the mens races riders like Dylan Groenewegen and Edvald Boasson Hagen have dominated this sprint in the Tour of Norway. None of the men have been able to break away and stay ahead to the finish like Lucinda Brand did in LToN 2016. She had a 56 seconds gap to second placed Norwegian talent Susanne Andersen, who was a surprise runner-up on the stage from Mysen.
The stage doesn’t have any big climbs and it will probably be possible for the strongest teams to control the race if they have the power for it. But it is of course also possible to surprise the peloton with some attacks and break clear on the way into Sarpsborg.
Stage 1 through the Inner Østfold : Tougher than many believes
Friday’s first stage of LToN goes through the inner part of the region Østfold, starting in Rakkestad and finishing in Mysen. It’s 128 km long and probably heavier than you believe from the profile.
– I’m very unsure if we’ll get a big field together to the finish here, says project manager and announcer Kjell-Erik Kristiansen who has designed this course.
– The course has several short, hard hills – often coming quickly after each others. It makes it difficult to control the peloton. Specially the terrain from Spydeberg and back to Askim is undulating and here are some possibilities to break up the field, says Kjell-Erik.
The start is in Rakkestad, the city once again playing a role at the LToN. The roads are taking the riders north passing Eidsberg kirke and Slitu. After 29 km is the first sprint in Skjønhaug in the community of Trøgstad.
After this the riders will continue in the direction of Askim, facing a hill up from Mønster bro. Before the center of Askim they’ll turn right towards Solbergfoss and after 5 km the field will cross the spectacular power station at Solbergfoss and Norway’s longest river Glomma for the first time.
The course is now taking a turn towards the region of Akershus in the north, passing Enebakk and coming back to Østfold at the feeding zone after 73 km. The riders will follow Lysernveien to Spydeberg.
From here it starts to go up towards the KoM at Skoro after 87 km. May be not the hardest and longest hill, but it can be a ramp for starting breaks on the tough roads to come all the way to Askim, where we have the second sprint of the day after 99 km.
From Askim it’s a quick run-in to the final circuit in Mysen where the riders will take on the same lap as last year. But this time only twice through the technical and demanding finishing circuit. The sprint is slightly in an uphill and last year it was the Belgian champion Jolien d’Hoore who won here. A crucial moment is to find a good position through the last corner before you hit the final straight.
The teams in LToN 2018 : Team Sunweb among the favorites again
Team Sunweb is one of the favorites in LToN once again. This despite Ellen van Dijk is not in the line-up this time. But the team has former winner Lucinda Brand and the American top sprinter Coryn Rivera, coming for the the first time to LToN.
Team Sunweb has 15 victories this season. They are may be the only team who can fight hard with the World’s best team Boels-Dolmans.
Coryn Rivera has 5 victories this year, two of them from World Tour-races: The GC and one stage of the OVO Energy Tour in Great Britain. She is a very quick sprinter and she will be hard to beat in the finishes in the LToN.
Fellow American Ruth Winder is not a bad sprinter either. She is new in the team from UnitedHealthcare and the 25 year old has the last victory for Team Sunweb this year: 1 stage of the Giro Rosa – the ladies Giro d’Italia.
Another hos has taken steps this year and won three times is the 22 year old Dutch rider Floortje Mackaij. She was also a part of the winning team at the TTT-race at the World Championships in Bergen last September.
The biggest hope for a total victory in Norway is may be Lucinda Brand, the rider who won the race in 2016. She is also Dutch champion from both 2013 and 2015, and she has three stages from the Giro Rosa, where Brand ended 4th overall.
Danish rider Pernille Mathisen is also a member of Team Sunweb and she was riding in the team finishing 2nd in the TTT in Vårgårda, Sweden on Saturday.
Team Sunweb is also one of the teams with both ladies and mens team at the highest level. And everybody thinks they’ll be fighting in the top also in this years Ladies Tour of Norway.
The teams in LToN : Team TIBCO-SVB – first time in LToN
American TIBCO-SVB is a new team for us in the Ladies Tour of Norway. The team is very international and they have three victories in different national championships this year. But they are not among the greatest favorites for the victory, in the TTT in Vårgårda, Sweden recently the team finished 11th – beaten by 3,22 minutes.
The teams full name is Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank and the riders are from both North- and South America and Europe.
This Summer the team have contracted Italian rider Valentina Scandolara who was 7th on GC in LToN already in 2014. She was riding for Dutch team WM3 Eneregie last year, but this team is no longer. So she as been riding by her own this year.
23 year old Shannon Malseed was riding LToN for the Australian national team last year and she is the Australian championship this year. Beside that she has gold and silver from the Oceanian championships in 2016 and 2017. Malseed also has a 2nd place on one stage of the World Tour-race Tour of Chongming Island in China and she is may be the biggest talent in the team.
The team is standing with 5 victories so far this year. These including Malseeds Australians championship as well as TT-gold for Ingrid Drexel in Mexico and Nicolle Bruderer in Guatemala. One World Tour-victory is also on the list: Sprinter Kendall Ryan won the 1st stage of Tour of California.
Team TIBCO-SVB will definitely be an exciting newcomer in this years LToN.
The teams in LToN 2018 : FDJ – strong, but few victories
French team FDJ is also one team at the highest level both for ladies and men. But despite a strong and experienced team there is only one victory in the book this season. The team is often close, but the only one who has succeeded in bringing home a win is Rozanne Slik on the 5th stage of Thüringen Ladies Tour in Germany.
The ladies teams name is FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope. They were riding the LToN also last year and several of the riders are coming back, somebody though in other teams last year.
27 year old Rozanne Slik from the Netherlands is one of them. She is coming from Team Sunweb and she is a rider who can produce good results in a race like LToN. But the team is chasing more victories than the one Slik has from Germany earlier this year.
TT-specialist Shara Gillow from Australia is one of the most experienced riders on the team. She is four times Australian TT-champion and the 30 year old has also four victories in the Oceania championships, tre in TT and one in the roadrace. This year the rider who has been with both Orica and Rabobank and was 6th at the Worlds TT-race in Bergen last year is standing without top spots.
Another experienced 30 year old is Dutch rider Moniek Tenniglo who for many years has been a domestic for Dutch teams. She did a strong job helping Marianne Vos to her LToN-victory with the WM3 Energi-team last year. But in 2018 is Moniek for the first time in a team outside the Netherlands and may be she’ll get the chance to ride for her own results. Even though she has several strong 2nd places she’s missing the big win in her career.
From the old WM3 Energie-team is also Lauren Kitchen, another Aussie in the team. She is well known in Norway after three years (2014-2016) with Norway’s own Hitec Products-team. Now the winner of the Oceania championships from 2015 is riding her first season for FDJ.
There are actually also French girls riding for FDJ. 26 year old Roxane Fournier won two stages of the ladies Tour de France in 2016 and was 6th at the WCH the same year. 21 year old talent Greta Richioud is also French. She was riding the LToN last year as well and this year she was a member of the French team at the U23-ECH in the Czech Republic.
The white, blue and red jerseys of FDJ is well known by Norwegian cycling fans when they are passing by on the roads in Østfold. The ladies team have the same jerseys as the mens team, where Norway’s Daniel Hoelgaard is also riding.
66 year old Bjørn Erik Tuv is the new chief of security for Ladies Tour of Norway. And we’ve never felt more secure about security. The veteran from Tønsberg is maybe the one in Norway with most experience on this field, as he was the manager of sport already when Norway organized the World Championships in Oslo 1993.
Bjørn Erik is also the security manager for the mens Tour of Norway and he has been an active cyclist by himself.
– But that’s a very long time ago. I competed at the end of the 60’s and the beginning of the 70’s, says the experienced veteran.
He still has the knowledge tough. This summer is cycled 1.700 km to Paris with Team Rinkeby to collect money for the fight against cancer for children. He did it together with thousands of other amateurs who all arrived in Paris in time for the last stage of the Tour de France at Champs-Elysees.
Most of the time after his active career Bjørn Erik has mostly worked at home in Vestfold.
– I was starting up Vang topsport gymnasium in Tønsberg where I still am. Now as member of the board and responsible for special projects, says Bjørn Erik who has the NRK expert in cross country skiing Fredrik Aukland as the principal at the school where several cycling talents are studying.
Now the 66 year old from Tønsberg will take care of the security at LToN – maybe the most important work at the whole race. But he knows the roads from earlier editions of Tour of Norway and he has already worked close with the new technical director Anders Eia Linnestad during several years.
Presentation of the LToN-teams : Track star heading Lotto-Soudal:s team
Belgian Lotto-Soudal is one of the teams with squads on the World Tour-level both in the ladies and mens categories. The biggest star in this years line-up for LToN from Lotto-Soudal is the track specialist Lotte Kopecky, recently to be seen at the velodrom at the ECH in Glasgow.
The former track World Champion was second at the Belgian TT-championships this year and she got a 5th place in the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) last year. Lotto-Soudal have only one victory in the ladies class this year.
Annelies Dom won the Belgian road championships. She took part in the LToN last year, but so far she is only listed as a reserve this year.
Lotte Kopecky was close to a victory on the first stage of the World Tour-race BeNe Ladies Tour on home soil where she was second on stage 1.
Valerie Demey came from Topsport Vlaanderen this year and she was the silver medalist in this years Belgian road championship and she is in the preliminary line-up for the race in Norway.
Also 22 year old Kelly Van Den Steen is new in Lotto-Soudal from Topsport Vlaanderen. She raced the LToN last year where she was 9th in the fight for the Best young rider jersey. Van Den Steen was also a member of the Belgian team at the World Championships in Bergen, Norway.
Another newcomer is the 23 year old French rider Annabelle Dreville who was riding for the FDJ-team last year.
22 year old Marjolein Van’t Geldoof is a big talent in her first professional season at this level. She was a part of the Dutch team at this years U23-ECH in the Czech Republic.
But Lotto-Soudal ladies need more victories if they wanna compete with their own mens team who did race the Tour de France with stars like Andre Greipel, Thomas De Gendt and others. May be the victories are coming in the Ladies Tour of Norway?
Ladies Tour of Norway has got a new technical director.
But 40 year old Anders Eia Linnestad from outside Tønsberg is in no way a newcomer. He has the same job in several other cycle races, including Tour of Norway. And he has been a member of the Norwegian national junior team together with Thor Hushovd and has won the national title in the criterium as a junior.
– I stopped my competitive cycling in-between the junior- and senior ranks, says Anders, who instead started his life on the other side, among the organizers.
– I got employed by Interspons and Birger Hungerholdt and we started with Ringerike Grand Prix. Later it became Tour of Noway and we’re also running the Joker-Icopal Continental team.
Now will be the first time during the roof of the car at Ladies Tour of Norway. And Anders knows how to get the ladies safely through the region of Østfold and in Sweden.
He has also studied Sports Management and he was one of the founders of Olympia Sport in the region of Vestfold. Anders has worked with cycling in his whole life. His father Dag was also a Norwegian TT-champion and he is the regular driver for Anders at Tour of Norway.
Now he is looking forward to take on the new challenge as technical director for Ladies Tour of Norway. And Anders is very impressed that more or less all the best female riders in the world will take the start in Norway.
– It feels like we have most of the things in place and the people in the organization have done a very good jobb in advance. I also know some of these roades from Tour of Norway earlier.
And next year another challenge is waiting when Tour of Norway and Tour des Fjords are merging to one race. Of course with Anders Eia Linnestad as the technical director.
His experience is not easy to beat.
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