Kristoff felt "a little sick" but won thanks in part to INEOS leadout: "I was looking for Viviani's wheel"

Alexander Kristoff won the first stage of the CRO Race on Tuesday. The Uno-X Mobility Norwegian was the fastest in the bunch sprint, finally claiming a stage victory in the Croatian race after four podium finishes last year. A reason to celebrate, though Kristoff admitted he didn’t quite expect the win.

"I didn’t feel good today," Kristoff said, still catching his breath during the flash interview. "I’m a bit sick, a little under the weather with a cold. We didn’t really want to work today because I told the team I wasn’t feeling great. In the end, we did put one guy up front to help bring back the early break. We were actually lucky that there was a crash in the lead group. That made it easier to catch them."

"The finale was pretty stressful," the 37-year-old Norwegian continued. "There were some narrow roads with sharp turns. We managed to stay in a good position and kept the team together quite well. In the last kilometers, there were four of us. I knew we lacked a bit of firepower compared to teams like INEOS. They didn’t take the lead during the stage and have a lot of strong riders."

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"I was looking for Viviani and started my sprint earlier to surprise him," said Kristoff

With that in mind, Kristoff knew exactly what to do in the sprint. "In the last kilometer, I was looking for Viviani, and I managed to get on his wheel. I started my sprint a bit earlier than he did to surprise him. Fortunately, I was strong enough to hold on, as it was quite a long sprint with a bit of a headwind."

The climb in the middle of the stage was the main obstacle on Tuesday. "It was really tough, full throttle for me. Last year, I finished second in the general classification here, but I was probably in better shape then." Nevertheless, Kristoff is already satisfied. "At least I’ve got my victory now, as I finished second multiple times last year. So, I’m already happy with this race. Compared to last year, I’m in worse form, which will make it hard to aim for a good overall classification. But I’ll do my best to win more stages this week."

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