Preview Tour of Norway 2024 | Wout van Aert faces eager Thibau Nys upon comeback

As the Giro d'Italia is winding down, racing continues elsewhere in Europe. Indeed, in Norway, Wout van Aert will make his comeback after a serious crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen, making him the main attraction on the start list for the Tour of Norway. IDLProCycling.com guides you through it.

The Tour of Norway is known for its stunning images of the rugged landscape in Scandinavia, where the quality of the roads is always excellent. An ideal comeback race for Van Aert. "I am looking forward to pinning on a race number again. Over the past weeks, I've been able to train more, but that's still different from racing. Therefore, my main goal is to test myself and see how I perform in a race, without any expectations," he shared.

His current teammate, Ben Tulett, is the defending champion, but he will not be at the start. Remco Evenepoel, winner of the race in 2022, will also be absent: understandably, this Tour of Norway does not quite fit into his Tour de France preparations. However, Thibau Nys, another future superstar, will be present. The Lidl-Trek rider brings considerable credentials to the starting line.

Most recent winners Tour of Norway

2023 Ben Tulett
2022 Remco Evenepoel
2021 Ethan Hayter
2020 Not ridden
2019 Alexander Kristoff
2018 Eduard Prades
2017 Edvald Boasson Hagen
2016 Pieter Weening
2015 Jesper Hansen
2014 Maciej Paterski

Tour of Norway 2024: Course, favorites stage wins and times 

Stage 1, Thursday, May 23: Voss - Voss (142.0 km)

The Tour of Norway starts in and around Voss, located in the Norwegian hinterlands. The first uphill finish is encountered here: in the last four kilometers, the road inclines at 5.6 percent.

Climbs
81.0: Espedalen (8.7 km at 3.6%)
107.0: Skjeversfossen (3.4 km at 5.6%)
142.0: Voss (4.0 km at 5.6%)

Times
Start: 2:20 PM
Finish: approximately 6 PM

Favorites
Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek)
Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers)

Stage 2, Friday, May 24: Odda - Gullingen (205 km)

On day two, the queen stage of the Tour of Norway is on the agenda. In a tough 203-kilometer ride, the peloton heads to Gullingen, ending with a climb of 5.8 kilometers at an average of 8.7 percent. Climbers, gather round!

Climbs
104.0: Hogganvikbakken (3.5 km at 5.4%)
203.0: Gullingen (5.8 km at 8.7%)

Times
Start: 12:35 PM
Finish: approximately 6 PM

Favorites
Koen Bouwman (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Oscar Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers)
Ben Zwiehoff (BORA-hansgrohe)

Stage 3, Saturday, May 25: Soda - Egersund (162 km)

The third stage of the race in Scandinavia is typically suited to the sprinters. The stage features only two smaller climbs, after which the finish line awaits in Egersund after 162 kilometers.

Climbs
108.0: Runaskaret (2.7 km at 5.2%)
121.0: Synesvarden (0.8 km at 5.6%)

Times
Start: 2 PM
Finish: approximately 6 PM

Favorites
Jordi Meeus (BORA-hansgrohe)
Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X)
Elia Viviani (INEOS Grenadiers)

Stage 4, Sunday, May 26: Stavanger - Stavanger (125 km)

The Tour of Norway traditionally concludes in the city of Stavanger, where each year a challenging course is presented. The punchy Grisabakken climb, with its three hundred meters at 11.2 percent, is a highlight, yet sprinters (read: local favorite Alexander Kristoff in his hometown) may still shine here.

Climbs
34.0:Grisabakken (0.3 km at 11.2%)
55.0: Grisabakken (0.3 km at 11.2%)
76.0: Grisabakken (0.3 km at 11.2%)
97.0: Grisabakken (0.3 km at 11.2%)

Times
Start: 12:30 PM
Finish: 3:30 PM

Favorites
Per Strand Hagenes (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek)
Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X)

Favorites overall classification Tour of Norway 2024

One man obviously stands out on the provisional start list: Wout van Aert, who is making a pressure-free comeback in Norway on behalf of Visma | Lease a Bike. On paper, this should be a race that suits him well, though it seems unlikely that he will be very aggressive from the start. Yet, with a rider of his caliber, you never know.

Van Aert starts with a very strong team. Koen Bouwman had to skip the Giro due to an illness contracted in Romandie but had previously won in the Coppi and Bartali Cycling Week. Additionally, Bart Lemmen has proven capable of competing in general classifications, and the young talents Per Strand Hagenes (as a local rider), Tijmen Graat and Menno Huising are also set to contribute.

The main competition comes from Belgium, in the form of Thibau Nys. The flamboyant rider showed in Romandie and especially Hungary that he has made significant progress. Norway is his next stop, where he can once again prove that he still has speed in his legs after a tough climb. Mathias Vacek and Natnael Tesfatsion will support him.

There are also other WorldTour teams present. For example, INEOS Grenadiers is bringing former winner Ethan Hayter and climber Oscar Rodriguez, while BORA-hansgrohe seems to be counting on Ben Zwiehoff and Alexander Hajek for a GC result. On behalf of Alpecin-Deceuninck, wattage kings Jason Osborne and Luca Vergalitto will travel to Norway. Another Belgian team, Intermarché-Wanty, is bringing Italians Lorenzo Rota and Fransesco Busatto.

dsm-firmenich PostNL is doing without a classification rider, so we move on to the procontinental teams. For riders such as Lennert Teugels (Bingoal-WB), Carl Frederik Hagen (Q36.5), Jelle Johannink, Adam Toupalik (TDT-Unibet), Marco Brenner and Sébastien Reichenbach (Tudor), this is an ideal race to show themselves in a prestigious event. 

Finally, Uno-X, which seems to be bringing Magnus Cort as the main candidate. There is also talk of a Norwegian selection with Sven Erik Bystrom as the main name, and American Tyler Stittes of Project Echelon still stands out as an outsider. Jakub Otruba (ATT) and Storm Ingebrigtsen (Coop-Repsol) are the main contenders on behalf of the continental participants.

According to IDLProCycling.com, who are the favorites for the final classification of the 2024 Tour of Norway?

Top favorites: Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) and Koen Bouwman (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Outsiders: Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Wanty), Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers), Ben Zwiehoff (BORA-hansgrohe) and Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Long shots: Oscar Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers), Luca Vergallito, Jason Osborne (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), Per Strand Hagenes, Bart Lemmen, Tijmen Graat (Visma | Lease a Bike), Marco Brenner (Tudor) and Carl Frederik Hagen (Q36.5)

TV Tour of Norway 2024

The Belgian newspaper HLN offers live footage of the Tour of Norway online. As a subscriber, you can watch it for free, otherwise you will have to tune in to Eurosport around 4 PM. On Sunday, you'll have to hang in front of the tube as early as 1:20 PM, because the final stage starts very early.