Olympic bronze medallist Alexander Kristoff has pledged to do his utmost to win the Eneco Tour, accepting that two tough stages lie ahead but being encouraged by his small three second deficit to ongoing race leader Tom Boonen.
The Katusha rider sprinted in sixth on today’s stage and while he didn’t reduce his three second deficit to the Belgian, knows he is close enough to strike.
“I’m happy with my performance in this Eneco Tour. I didn’t reach the podium but I was consistent, I’ve always taken good placings and that allows me to be just three seconds off Boonen,” the Norwegian said. “It was a strange sprint, there were bad signals in the last kilometres and there were so many riders dropped: we had to slow down, but I think I managed to do a good sprint anyways.”
He remains fifth overall and will line out in tomorrow’s time trial and Sunday’s lumpy road stage looking to jump to the top of the podium.
“I know it won’t be easy to fight for general classification, because I’m not a specialist of races against the clock and the last stage will be very hard,” he said, “but I’ll do my best. After the Olympic Games I feel in a great shape. I have strong motivation for this final part of the season.”
Kristoff’s drive has been boosted by that Olympic medal, earned when he led in the chase group behind Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) and Rigoberto Uran (Colombia).