Belkin's Lars Peder Nordhaug has won the opening stage of the Artic Race Of Norway.
The race, north of the Artic circle and now in its second edition, saw Kevin Seeldrayers of Wanty Group and August Jensen were away on the opening 204km stage from Hammerfest to Nordkapp.
Jensen took the sprint at Nordkapp tunnel with 30kms left with a gap of 59 seconds.
With 22kms left, the peloton were bearing down on Jensen who took the day's combativity award and brought him to heel.
Mathias Brandle of IAM Cycling took over with a lead of thirteen seconds with fifteen kilometres to go.
Brandle started on the final 7.8%C climb but the peloton were in sight and with less than a kilometre to the summit, Brandle was passed by Lars Peder Nordhaug of Belkin, who took the KOM Points ahead of Spilak of Katusha.
With 4.2kms to go, counter attacks started on the descent with Martin Elmiger of IAM Cycling contesting things with a number of Belkin riders.
Nordhaug, who had picked up a second in the sprint, attacked again with 2.2kms left on the road to the North Cape, the last place in Northern Europe.
Lars Peder Nordhaug continued on his way and he got his reward with victory in 4.51.12.
Tomorrow's second stage is from Honningsvåg to Alta and is 207kms long.
Nordhaug said to Eurosport: "it was great to win a race in Norway and I am feeling really good. We are the strongest team for the climbs and our goal is to win. I have to thank my team today and three of us in the top five is great."
Source: DSG
