Ben Hermans of BMC is the new Arctic Race Of Norway leader after taking victory on the mountain stage.
On a 175km stage from Senja to Målselv, Christopher Williams (Team Novo Nordisk), Fridtjof Roinas (Team Sparebanken Sor), Marius Andre Hafsas (Team Fixit.no), Herman Dahl (Team Sparebanken Sor), Jon Soeveras Breivold (Team Froy Oslo) and Haavard Blikra (Team Coop-Oster Hus), got away and were soon seven minutes clear.
Blikra took the first sprint and was first over the 7.8% Krokevvatnet climb before the gap came down to 5.25 with 125km left.
Blikra booked his place in the salmon jersey when he took the points on the Mefjordbotneidet climb as the gap started to drop.
Guillaume Thevenot was forced to abandon after crashing before Chris Williams took the second sprint on a sunny day, north of the Arctic Circle.
BMC, IAM Cycling and Astana brought the gap down to 2.01 with 32kms left and they kept up the pressure which forced the likes of Williams to drop off from the front group who were battling a head wind with twenty kilometres left and a lead of only fifty eight seconds.
Ten kilometres later and only Blikra was left out front. but a kilometre and a half later, his time on the front was over.
With two kilometres to go, Rein Taaramae attacked but Ben Hermans of BMC was able to bridge.
The duo battled each other and it was Ben Hermans who got past Taaramae to win on the final climb in a time of 4.27.10 with Taaramae, three seconds down, followed by Frank, Diller and Theuns.
Hermans said about his victory and taking over as the race lead going into the final stage: "i was always 150 metres behind. "I knew there was a headwind at 1.5 kilometres to go and I could have jumped across but I would have exploded myself, so I waited on the wheels of my teammates. In the last kilometre it was a tailwind, I attacked full gas. Maybe I could have exploded with 250 metres to go, but I had to do it if I wanted to win. Finally, I didn't explode and I had really good legs.
"It is amazing, especially knowing that if you win, you take the 10 seconds bonus and the jersey. It's really incredible."
Hermans now leads the race with a seven second advantage from Rein Taaramae and 24 seconds over Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka).