Pavel Bittner sprints to strong 2nd place in Norway after great team support

The penultimate day of racing at the Tour of Norway saw the peloton take on the flattest stage of the race, with only a few rolling hills and one main climb to contend with throughout the afternoon. As expected, the sprint teams took control at the front of the bunch, setting off in pursuit of the break that had formed out front.
Riding well as a group, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL bubbled up in the peloton and supported each other, with the main goal of setting up fast finisher Pavel Bittner for the finale. Biding their time, the team came forward en masse once the break had been caught inside the closing five kilometres, bringing Bittner forward and dropping him off in a position from where he could launch his sprint. Opening it up at around 200 metres to go Bittner powered past everyone with a ferocious kick but unfortunately was passed by Meeus, who had cannily followed him through a gap, just before the line. Nonetheless, it was a strong second place for Bittner and the team after a good performance throughout the day.
Speaking after the stage a happy Bittner expressed: “We went into today’s stage with a plan to put me into a position to go for it in the sprint. Throughout the whole day the guys did a really good job taking care of me. Coming into the final we stayed really tight as a team and fought for each other’s wheel. Sean and Tim managed to deliver me into a really good spot where I could find my way through and deliver quite a good sprint. In the end only Meeus was able to come around so I rate it is a really good day as a team. We still have one nice day to go and I hope that we can do some more good teamwork tomorrow and go for another result.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Callum Ferguson continued: “Today we went all-in for Pavel. We knew we had a good chance for a nice result in the sprint finish. We made a really good plan together beforehand and as a group everyone committed to it, which was great to see. In the end Pavel took a strong second place and we are really happy with this. Onto tomorrow!”