Tour of Norway Favourites 2023

Startlist: [Link]
Country: Norway (surprise, surprise 🙃)
Number of Stages: 3 + Prologue
Race suited to: Climbers

This race should prove to be a fun one. The initial prologue features only 7.4km at which 3.4km of that is up a climb with an average gradient of 9% and kickers of 17.2% throughout.

You follow that up with two days of massive climbing, with climbs generally averaging over 7% for greater than 15 kilometres. Stage one is the most significant and should define the general classification.

Value Picks

We'll update this section as odds and rider begin to show up, but three stand outs that are currently appearing are Axel Laurance from Alpecin Deceuninck who has performed remarkably well in some of the French one day classics. Egan Bernal and Leo Hayter from Ineos should also make an appearance but most likely won't fall under our 15.00 bar for a value pick odds.

Someone who might is Thibau Nys who recently finished sixth in a sprint during the Tour de Hongrie, illustrating just how impressive this twenty year old might one day become.

Carr, a true climber is currently on the docket to arrive for EF Education First and given some of the brutal climbs in this years Tour of Norway may well be worth some stage bets (but again, unlikely to be valued long for an each way bet overall).

Finally, Attila Valter from Jumbo Visma might prove to peak at the right time for this race, and be given support from the team. Valter finished 4th in the general classification for O Gran Camiño at the start of the year, however against much reduced competition.

Strong Teams

Expect Uno X to bring their A team to this race given they're a Norwegian based cycling team who accept riders from other countries mainly because they can't completely fill out their roster without being all Norwegian 🙃

Stages

Prologue

An incredibly interesting prologue. You'll want to place bets on a light (kilogram wise) TT-er. But then again, given how short the stage is, sheer power may just win the day here like on stage 1 of the Giro.

Stage 1

Climbs: 3.5km - 7.1% (max 23%), 18.6km - 6% (max 24%), 3.5km -  7.4% (max 23%)

A GC defining day, the second climb being rather exhausting by the length and gradient. A powerful team could use it as a launching pad and hang on towards the finish.

Stage 2

Climbs: 23km - 3% (max 23%), 4.5km - 5.5% (max 15.7%)

A break should be able to form over what should be around thirthy minutes of climbing. Yet to be seen whether it would hold to the end. The GC contenders may weight to try their luck on the second shorter climb.

Stage 3

Climbs - 0.6km - 8.2% (repeat)

The repeated kicker at the end is steep enough and close enough from the finish (7km) that a punchy rider might be able to make a break (think Pogačar in some of the one day classics) and hold on to the finish.