Pidcock beats Strong in close uphill battle on stage 3 of Arctic Race of Norway

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) delivered on his status as pre-stage favourite to win stage 3 of the Arctic Race of Norway, outsprinting Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) after a nail-biting uphill battle.

The race leader, Strong, was the only rider able to follow the big acceleration of Pidcock and was able to stay with the British rider all the way to the finish, but his legs seized up in the closing metres, with Pidcock able to land his tenth professional road-race win and fifth of 2025.

Strong continues to lead in the general classification, with Pidcock now in second at six seconds, whilst Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana) is third at 23 seconds, having also finished third on the stage.

The day’s four-man breakaway featuring Storm Ingebrigtsen (Coop-Repsol), Georg Rydningen Martinsen (Lillehammer CK Continental Team), Sebastian Veslum (Norway), and Morthen Wang Baksaas (Norway) gained a maximum of 6:10, but for the majority of the stage, the gap sat less than 2:30 minutes.

Veslum attacked solo with 18.3km to go with the peloton closing to 15 seconds and as a result claimed first at the intermediate sprint with 12km to go, whilst Karsten Larsen Feldmann (Coop-Repsol) took second, and Cristian Scaroni (XDS Astana) ended third.

With 10km to go, Tom Pidcock was seen returning to the back of the peloton, indicating that he had an incident which led him to needing to chase; meanwhile, Veslum was caught by the peloton with 9km remaining.

Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) was distanced just before the foot of the final climb. 

With 3.1km remaining, the first move was made by TotalEnergies, before XDS Astana set a viscous pace with Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech), and in the wheel. Pidcock’s teammate Milan Vader (Q36.5) took over pacing duties, pulling a strong turn to reduce the size of the front group. Once Vader was finished, Nick Schultz (Israel-Premier Tech) became the next pace setter for the race leader, Strong.

On a section of 10%, with less than 2km to go, Pidcock made his first big move and was followed only by the race leader, Strong. Strong was able to follow when Pidcock made another dig inside the final kilometre, and was primed on the British rider’s wheel leading into the final few hundred metres for the sprint. 

Both riders went toe-to-toe, pushing to the limit, and it was Strong, whose legs faltered in the closing metres, whilst Pidcock powered his way to the stage win.