Alexander Kristoff

Alexander Kristoff

Personal information
Full name Alexander Kristoff
Born (1987-07-05) 5 July 1987
Oslo, Norway
Height 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight 78 kg (172 lb)
Team information
Current team Team Katusha
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Rider type Sprinter/Classics specialist
Professional team(s)
2006 Glud & Marstrand–Horsens
2007–2009 Maxbo–Bianchi
2010–2011 BMC Racing Team
2012– Team Katusha
Major wins

Grand Tours

Tour de France
2 individual stages (2014)

Stage races

Tour des Fjords (2014)
Three Days of De Panne (2015)

One-day Races and Classics

National Road Race Championship (2007, 2011)
Milan–San Remo (2014)
Tour of Flanders (2015)
Vattenfall Cyclassics (2014)
GP Ouest-France (2015)
Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop (2014, 2016)
Scheldeprijs (2015)
Grand Prix of Aargau Canton (2015)
Infobox last updated on
30 August 2015

Alexander Kristoff (born 5 July 1987) is a Norwegian professional road bicycle racer with the UCI ProTeam Team Katusha.[1] He won the Norwegian National Road Race Championship in 2007 and 2011.[2] His biggest victories have been the 2014 Milan–San Remo and the 2015 Tour of Flanders among many other successes.

Career

Kristoff at the Tour des Fjords in 2014

Early career

At six, he moved from Oslo to Stavanger. His stepfather got him interested in cycling rather than football. He started riding for Stavanger SK. At 16 he won the Norwegian youth championship, and finished fourth in the Youth Olympics.[3] He turned professional in 2006 for Glud & Marstrand Horsens. In 2007, he became Norwegian road champion at 19, beating Thor Hushovd in a sprint of four riders.[4]

Katusha (2012-)

He won a bronze medal in the road race at the 2012 London Olympic Games.[5]

In 2014 Kristoff won the Milan–San Remo beating Fabian Cancellara in the sprint. Later the same year Kristoff conceded two stage wins in the Tour the France making him runner up behind Peter Sagan in the Green Jersey Competition. Later this season Kristoff took another victory when he claimed the first place in the Vattenfall Cyclassics such as the Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop in May. In total Kristoff took 14 victories in the 2014 season ranking him eight on the UCI World Tour.

In 2015, Kristoff had a very good start to his campaign by getting three stage victories on the Tour of Qatar, grabbing the sprints jersey in the process. He celebrated another stage victory soon afterward at the Tour of Oman. On March 1, he was outsprinted by Mark Cavendish and grabbed the second position of Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne.[6] He earned another sprint victory at Paris–Nice, while he was preparing himself for Milan–San Remo. He was looking for a repeat victory at that race, but John Degenkolb had the better of him in the sprint finish and he settled for a still prestigious second position.[7] Still in the month of March, he went on to finish just shy of the podium in E3 Harelbeke, taking a fourth placing.[8] He then participated to Three Days of De Panne, where he was part of a six-man breakaway on the first stage and won the sprint of the small group, while being lead-out by his teammate Sven Erik Bystrom.[9] He reapeated the next day, this time using a bunch sprint to propel himself to victory.[10] Kristoff also won stage 3a, a bunch sprint where he very slightly edged Andre Greipel by 3/10,000th of a second. With the bonus seconds awarded to him, he won the general classification too after finishing third of stage 3b, a short individual time trial.[11] In April, Kristoff won the cobbled monument Tour of Flanders, the main goal of his spring season. With some 30 kilometers remaining Niki Terpstra attacked and only Kristoff went with him. The duo got a lead of 30 seconds with the remains of the lead group unable to catch them. Kristoff beat Terpstra in the two-man sprint, to take his biggest win so far.[12] Three days later Kristoff won the sprinters semi-classic Scheldeprijs,[13] becoming the first ever to win the Three Days of De Panne, Tour of Flanders and Scheldeprijs in the same season. Kristoff came in tenth at Paris–Roubaix, then took a break from racing.

He came back at the Tour of Norway, where he finished eighth overall while taking two stage successes.[14] Shortly after, he participated to the Tour des Fjords where he dominated the sprints again by amassing three stage victories, the points classification jersey and a ninth overall position.[15] He also won the seventh stage of the Tour de Suisse by a whisker over Peter Sagan. Sagan got out of Kristoff's slipstream to try to out-sprint him in the final meters, but to no avail.[16]

In 2016, he started his season with a hat-trick of stage wins at the flat Tour of Qatar, reaping second position in the overall classification to Mark Cavendish.[17]

Palmarès

2006
Grenland GP
1st Stages 1 & 2
2007
1st National Road Race Championships
2008
1st National Criterium Championships
1st Stage 4 Ringerike GP
2nd Rogaland Grand Prix
2nd Porec Trophy
2009
1st Under-23 National Road Race Championships
1st Stage 3 Ringerike GP
2nd Sandefjord Grand Prix
5th Overall Le Tour de Bretagne Cycliste
5th La Côte Picarde
7th Druivenkoers Overijse
7th European Under 23 Road Race Championships
9th ZLM Tour
9th Porec Trophy
2010
3rd Philadelphia International Championship
4th Vattenfall Cyclassics
5th Grand Prix de Fourmies
7th Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
8th Grote Prijs Jef Scherens
9th Paris–Bruxelles
10th Scheldeprijs
10th Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen
2011
1st National Road Race Championships
2nd Grand Prix de Fourmies
5th Grand Prix d'Isbergues
7th Scheldeprijs
7th Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
7th Paris–Bruxelles
7th London – Surrey Cycle Classic
2012
Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 3a
1st Points classification
2nd Grand Prix de Fourmies
3rd Summer Olympics: Men's Road Race
3rd Overall World Ports Classic
1st Young rider classification
3rd National Road Race Championships
4th Overall Danmark Rundt
1st Stage 4
1st Points classification
6th Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt
9th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
2013
Tour of Norway
1st Stages 1, 2 & 5
1st Stage 5 Tour de Suisse
2nd National Road Race Championships
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 3a
1st Points classification
3rd Vattenfall Cyclassics
4th Overall Tour des Fjords
1st Stages 2 & 3 (TTT)
1st Points classification
4th Tour of Flanders
4th Brussels Cycling Classic
5th Scheldeprijs
8th Milan–San Remo
9th Paris–Roubaix
2014
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop
1st Vattenfall Cyclassics
Tour of Norway
1st Stages 1 & 5
1st Points classification
1st Stage 2 Tour of Oman
1st Overall Tour des Fjords
1st Stages 2, 4 & 5
1st Points classification
Tour de France
1st Stages 12 & 15
2nd Overall Arctic Race of Norway
1st Stages 2[18] & 4[19]
1st Points classification
5th Tour of Flanders
8th UCI World Tour
8th World Road Race Championships
8th GP Ouest-France
2015
1st Stage 7 Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 3 Tour of Oman
1st Stage 1 Paris–Nice
1st Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3a
1st Points classification
1st Tour of Flanders
1st Scheldeprijs
1st Grand Prix of Aargau Canton
Arctic Race of Norway
1st Stage 1
1st Points classification
1st GP Ouest-France
2nd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne[20]
2nd Milan–San Remo
2nd Vattenfall Cyclassics
3rd Overall Tour of Qatar
1st Stages 2, 4 & 5
1st Points classification
3rd Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec
4th World Road Race Championships
4th E3 Harelbeke
8th Overall Tour of Norway
1st Stages 1 & 2
1st Points classification[21]
9th Gent–Wevelgem
9th Overall Tour des Fjords
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3
1st Points classification
10th Paris–Roubaix
2016
1st Stages 3 & 6 Tour of Oman
1st Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop
2nd Overall Tour of Qatar
1st Stages 2, 4 & 5
1st Points classification
2nd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1
4th Tour of Flanders
6th Milan–San Remo

Monuments results timeline

Monument 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Milan–San Remo 131 8 1 2 6
Tour of Flanders 15 4 5 1 4
Paris–Roubaix DNF DNF 57 9 DNF 10 48
Liège–Bastogne–Liège
Giro di Lombardia
World Road Race Championships 69 8 4

DNF = Did not finish
— = Did not compete

References

  1. "Kristoff signs for Katusha". Cycling News (Future Publishing Limited). 20 August 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  2. "National Championship, Road, Elite, Norway". Cycling Archives. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  3. Dagbladet Sportsmagasinet 29 August 2008. Alexander Kristoff. Page 8
  4. Yngstemann ble bestemann BT.no
  5. "Mark Cavendish's Olympic bid fails as Alexandre Vinokourov wins gold". Retrieved 2012-07-28.
  6. Benson, Daniel. "Cavendish sprints to Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne win". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  7. "Results: 2015 Milano-Sanremo". VeloNews (Competitor Group, Inc.). 22 March 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  8. "Thomas solos away from Stybar to win E3 Harelbeke". Cyclingnews.com (Future plc). 27 March 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  9. "Kristoff wins Driedaagse De Panne opener in Zottegem". Cyclingnews.com (Future plc). 31 March 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  10. Emil Axelgaard (1 April 2015). "Kristoff makes it two in a row in De Panne". Cycling Quotes (CyclingQuotes.com 2013). Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  11. "Kristoff strikes again at Driedaagse de Panne". Cyclingnews.com (Future plc). 2 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  12. Nigel Wynn (5 April 2015). "Alexander Kristoff wins Tour of Flanders". Cycling Weekly (IPC Media Sports & Leisure network). Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  13. Emil Axelgaard (8 April 2015). "Unstoppable Kristoff conquers Scheldeprijs". Cycling Quotes (CyclingQuotes.com 2013). Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  14. Jean-François Quénet (25 May 2015). "Tour of Norway: Kristoff wins stage 2". Cyclingnews.com (Future plc). Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  15. Jean-François Quénet (29 May 2015). "Three in a row for Kristoff at Tour des Fjords". Cyclingnews.com (Future plc). Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  16. "Kristoff claims Tour de Suisse stage 7 in long-range sprint". VeloNews (Competitor Group, Inc.). 19 June 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  17. Ryan, Barry (12 February 2016). "Kristoff repeats hat-trick of stage wins at Tour of Qatar". Cyclingnews.com (Immediate Media Company). Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  18. O'Shea, Sadhbh (15 August 2014). "Kristoff wins sprint in Alta". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  19. "Kruijswijk wins the Arctic Race of Norway". cyclingnews.com. 17 August 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  20. "Cavendish sprints to Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne win". cyclingnews.com. 1 March 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  21. Quénet, Jean-François (25 May 2015). "Tour of Norway: Vangstad solos to victory on final day". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 26 May 2015.

External links

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