Jørgen Nordhagen impresses again in UAE Tour: "I never dared to hope for this"

Jørgen Nordhagen is set to finish safely in the top 10 of the overall classification of the UAE Tour today. The 21-year-old Norwegian from Visma | Lease a Bike impressed again on Saturday by finishing sixth in the mountain stage to Jebel Hafeet. "It exceeds my expectations," he said on the team site.

Nordhagen made significant progress yesterday in the UAE Tour. On the tough Jebel Hafeet, the promising stage racer finished in the chasing group, more than half a minute behind stage winner Isaac Del Toro. This moved Nordhagen up to eighth place in the general classification.

"I am extremely satisfied with this performance," he said afterwards. "It was my first time climbing Jebel Hafeet, so I held back a bit at the start. From the foot of the climb, the pace was very high, but I felt I had good legs. I couldn’t respond to Del Toro’s accelerations, so I decided to ride my own tempo. Ultimately, that proved to be the right decision to finish again in the top ten."

"I still don’t have much experience"
If Nordhagen gets through the final stage without mishap, he will finish eighth in the overall classification. "I never dared to hope I would finish in the top ten here. I don’t have much experience at this level yet, so I’m happy to have been able to show myself among all these big names."

"Last winter I already noticed I had made progress, so it’s great to see that reflected in the results. An eighth place overall exceeds my expectations, so I want to thank my team for their support."