The Uno-X team
It wasn't long ago that Alexander Kristoff thought he would be on holiday in July 2023 and would have to wait for his tenth Tour de France. For the new season, he switched from the World Tour team Intermarche-Circus-Wanty to the small racing team Uno-X Pro Cycling Team in his home country of Norway. "It was a tough decision. I had a great year with Intermarche. I could have stayed there," says the 36-year-old, the most successful Norwegian professional cyclist of the present day with four stage wins at the Tour de France and triumphs at Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders. He then decided to make the switch and sign a three-year contract after all: "I had the opportunity to make history: to ride the Tour de France as a Norwegian with the first Norwegian team. That was the trigger that made me want to be there."
Alexander Kristoff - A legend of Norwegian cycling
The Tour de France participation went faster than expected after all. You might still be able to hear team boss Jens Haugland's cry of joy echoing through the Norwegian fjords shortly after his phone rang on New Year's Day. Haugland was on Christmas holiday and just about to pick up pizza for the family when Tour boss Christian Prudhomme called to give him the good news: Uno-X would be the first team from Norway to take part in the 2023 Tour.
"Uno-X is a new team with a strong identity, as it only has Norwegian and Danish riders. They have Alexander Kristoff under contract, a legend of Norwegian cycling, and also Tobias Johannessen, the winner of the 2021 Tour de l'Avenir," said Prudhomme, explaining the reasons for the invitation. There were only two wildcards for the Tour this year. French teams are usually considered, but after Equipe B&B Hotels closed down at short notice last autumn, only TotalEnergies remained as a contender from France.
The interesting north of Europe
It certainly also helped that Tour organiser ASO has strong business interests in Norway, organises the Arctic Race there and that the wealthy countries in northern Europe are currently interesting growth markets in cycling. In addition, not only a Scandinavian selection of two Danes and six Norwegians rolled onto the start line for the debut, but also the red and yellow advertising caravan of a petrol station company that has sustainability written all over it.
A green coat of paint can't do any harm to the biggest cycling race in the world, which is also a big car race with a huge accompanying entourage and heavy sooty mobiles in the advertising caravan. Uno-X, part of the Reitan conglomerate, operates almost a thousand so-called mobility centres in Norway and Denmark - filling stations that are to be converted into charging stations for e-mobility as quickly as possible.
Home of the Vikings
"Otherwise our company will no longer play a role in five to ten years' time," says Haugland, who is not only team boss but also one of the directors at Uno-X, which not only sponsors the professional team but also owns it. In Norway, around 80 per cent of newly registered cars run on electricity - far more than in any other country in Europe.
The debutants from the home of the Vikings are also self-confident in sporting terms. For decades, a wildcard invitation to the Tour de France meant that you had to fill the early breakaway groups on flat stages with no chance of success. "Cycling has changed in recent years. We are here to achieve results, not to get TV time," says sports director Kurt Asle Arvesen. The team also needs the necessary points to make it into the World Tour within three years.
However, the Tour de France premiere in the Basque Country did not get off to a good start: Torstein Träen landed hard on the tarmac on the first stage - he was the great hope for a good overall place after finishing eighth in the Tour of the Dauphine. But the 28-year-old, who had survived an operation for testicular cancer the previous year, struggled through the race with a fracture in his elbow.
Uno-X Pro Cycling Team: The biggest success at the Tour de France 2023
The team's biggest success was Tobias Johannessen's third place on the Pyrenean stage to Cauterets - beaten only by Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. Little went well in the sprints. "I'm getting older and perhaps also slower," said Kristoff, the only rider in the team with Tour experience.
"But I hope I'm a good role model for my colleagues." The veteran is already looking ahead: "I hope cycling in Norway gets more attention again - a team at the Tour will obviously help a lot." Kristoff almost didn't become a professional in his early days because Norwegians were hardly in demand as professional cyclists back then. That should change with a top domestic team.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
