Stephen Williams wins the Arctic Race of Norway as Clement Champoussin wins photo finish final stage
Cycling
Stephen Williams has been crowned the winner of the 2023 Arctic Race of Norway as Clement Champoussin took a photo finish win on the final stage.
The final day of racing will take the riders all the way into the North Cape. It's a hilly day, a mix of the previous days, it doesn't include a summit finish but the final few hundred meters are uphill, after two ascents of 4.2Km at 5.5% and 3.1Km at 7.4%.
After winning the Queen stage and taking the leader's jersey, Stephen Williams was looking to defend his lead of just a single second in the general classification over Christian Scaroni.
A big group of fifteen riders formed the day's breakaway. Among them, former leader's jersey wearer Noah Hobbs, and Frederik Dversnes.
As the race reached the penultimate climb of the day, the break still held just over a minute on the peloton but both the lead group and the main bunch were thinning drastically.
At the top of the penultimate climb, a lead group of five held a 1:11 advantage over the peloton with the remnants of the break spread out in the gap in between.
With just under 8km to go and just two riders remaining out front, leader Stephen Williams decided to make a testing attack although ultimately it amounted to nothing.
Despite repeated attempts, neither Williams, Scaroni nor Tobias Johannessen were able to gap the others.
Into the final kilometre and Walter Calzoni, the last remaining breakaway rider, held just a handful of seconds advantage.
As the sprints launched from the peloton, Calzoni was finally caught as a three-way photo finish was needed to decide the victory.
It looked like for the second straight day, Michele Gazzoli would win but right at the line the victory was taken by Clement Champoussin.
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Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
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Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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@clemchampou wins at the Nordkapp ! #ArcticRace
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