Corbin Strong wins rain-soaked Arctic Race of Norway stage 1 in uphill sprint

Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) claimed the opening stage of the Arctic Race of Norway in Harstad ahead of his teammate Riley Sheehan (Israel-Premier Tech) and Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X Mobility) in third.

It was an arduous stage in tough weather conditions, but Strong navigated through the difficulties the best to secure the victory in an uphill sprint to the finish in Harstad.

This victory marks the seventh success of Strong’s career, and the third of 2025, adding to the stage and GC victory the Kiwi claimed at the Ethias Tour de Wallonie.

Strong will wear the Midnight Sun Jersey on stage 2 on Friday as the leader of the general classification. 

The six-man breakaway featuring Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility), Romain Combaud (Picnic PostNL), Abram Stockman (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Storm Ingebrigtsen (Coop-Repsol), Georg Rydingen Marttinesen (Lillehammer CK Continental Team) and Vetle Torin Eskedal (Sandnes Sykleklubb) cooperated well during the early portion of the stage.

However, the group fractured on the slopes of the Storjorda summit with the Spanish pro-continental team Equipo Kern Pharma setting a strong tempo, and all were eventually caught by around the 30km to go mark. 

Ingebrigtsen accumulated the most mountain points from the breakaway and will lead the classification heading into stage 2.

With 18km to go, Mats Wenzel, the only non-Spanish rider in the Equipo Kern Pharma lineup, rolled off the front, but was quickly swept up by the bunch a few kilometres later.

The next move was made on a main road uphill drag with 8km to go by Eirik Van Aas, who was joined by Jules Hesters (Flanders-Baloise) and Sven Erik Bystrøm (Groupama-FDJ), racing in the red colours of the Norwegian national team as opposed the blue of the French team who aren’t in attendance at the race. The trio were also caught on a roundabout with 4km remaining.

Israel Premier Tech led the peloton up the start of the final drag with Tom Van Asbroeck, before their main man and one of the pre-stage favourites, Strong, powered to victory with his closest challenger being his teammate Sheehan.