Norway’s star cyclist Alexander Kristoff finished third in the sprint on the final day of the Tour de France down Paris’ Champs-Elysees on Sunday, ending what otherwise was a disappointing race over the past three weeks. He’s considered dropping “le Tour” next year.
Norwegian media reported that Kristoff actually had a chance of finally winning a lap, not least the most prominent of them all, but one of his teammates from Russian Team Katusha lost his momentum, leaving Kristoff in third place behind André Greipel of Germany and Bryan Coquard of France. Chris Froome of Kenya won the overall race.
Kristoff, age 28, was quick to say that he was also at fault because he’d been sick in recent days and “didn’t have good enough legs” to win the final lap in the world’s most prestigious bike race. “I felt that it was going to be difficult today,” Kristoff told reporters. “If I’d been in top shape I could have managed it, but since I’ve been sick, it was difficult.”
He’ll travel home from the Tour de France without a single lap victory, even though he’d been favoured to win several before it all began. “I’m not happy about how it all went,” he said.
Nor was the only other Norwegian in the race, Edvald Boasson Hagen, who also has claimed lap victories in earlier versions of the Tour de France. Hagen, though, put on a good performance Sunday, finishing fourth right after Kristoff.
newsinenglish.no staff
