– I think he thought it was worth a little kiss. Don’t say I said so, but, Iben Kvisle tells NRK and laughs a little nervously.
She kissed and broke the “kissing ban” in the Uno-X camp when she embraced her fiancé Søren Wærenskjold, who sprinted to his first career podium in the Tour de France, outside the team bus after the finish.
ENGAGED: TikTok profile Iben Kvisle is engaged to cycling star Søren Wærenskjold.
– I think they’ve actually been told not to kiss. I’ve been a little sick, so we’ve been sick together. So now we’re both healthy and I think it’s fine if we cuddle a little, she continues.
– No, then I think, phew, you can’t kiss in the middle of the Tour de France, says Uno-X Mobility manager, Thor Hushovd, with a twinkle in his eye when he hears about the kiss.
– Gold position
–
Uno-X was very well placed on Saturday’s opening stage of the Tour de France when a 40-man group broke away in the crosswind just over two miles before the finish line.
MARKED THEMSELVES: Uno-X and Markus Hoelgaard made a mark on Saturday’s first stage when the main field was split in the crosswind.
– This is a gold position for Wærenskjold, exclaimed NRK expert Sondre Sørtveit one kilometer before the finish line.
A full five Uno-X riders were on the right side of the split and Wærenskjold was in a dream position in the fight for stage victory and the yellow leader’s jersey.
– Uno-X has never been so good in a mass sprint in the Tour de France. This is the chance of a lifetime, said TV 2 expert Dag Otto Lauritzen.
But on the run in Lille, the Norwegian lost several places early on in the run, before gaining several places in the final meters and finishing third.
– I didn’t have very good legs, so this is really the best I could do, Wærenskjold tells NRK.
– I didn’t expect it today. He’s been a bit sick lately and maybe his legs weren’t quite right and stuff. To get on the podium I think is completely sick, says fiancé Kvisle, to NRK.
PODIUM: Søren Wærenskjold came in third on the opening stage. Belgian Jasper Philipsen won the stage and moves into the yellow leader’s jersey.
Belgian Jasper Philipsen was fastest and sprinted to victory on the opening stage, ahead of Eritrean Biniam Girmay.
– Clumsy
An early morning break of five riders was reduced early on to the French two-man duo of Mattéo Vercher and Benjamin Thomas, but the main peloton denied the breakaways a larger lead.
At most, the French duo had a minute on the peloton, but in the battle for the climbing jersey, the compatriots fell to each other. At the top of the stage’s second climb, Thomas lost control of his bike on the cobbles, taking Vercher with him in the fall – before the duo was quickly picked up by the peloton.
– It’s a dangerous sport, but putting your nose in it is clumsy in my book, says NRK expert Ole Kristian Stoltenberg.
In windy areas of northern France, with several median strips, roundabouts and through several villages, the organizers were preparing for chaos before the finale, with stage victory and the yellow jersey at the finish line for the stage winner.
Seven miles before the finish, there were tendencies for crosswinds that completely split the field. The field gathered, but just over fifty miles later the wind increased and the field split again.
The field never gathered until a technical finish in the finishing city of Lille. There, Belgian Jasper Philipsen was fastest and won the stage.
Overall riders Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic came in 39 seconds behind the winning group. This means the duo loses valuable time in the summary to Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, who were in the main peloton.
Italian star Filippo Ganna, teammate of Norwegian Tobias Foss, had to retire during the first stage after a fall. Swiss Stefan Bissegger also had to retire later in the stage.