Thor Hushovd claimed victory in the Arctic Tour Of Norway that he is an ambassador of.
This final 155km stage amid some stunning scenary saw Edwig Cammaerts (Cofidis), Stijn Neirynck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Gilles Devillers (Crelan-Euphony), Zak Bell (Champion System) and Filip Eidsheim (Øster Hus-Ridley), finally making the break at the half distance mark.
They quickly took a lead of 3.30 but by the time they started the final five 6.3kms circuits around Harstad, their lead was just over a minute and a half.
Zak Bell tried a lone road but was caught and Jetse Bol (Belkin), Zico Waeytens (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Baptiste Planckaert (Crelan-Euphony) and Reidar Borgersen (Joker-Merida) had a go before they too were reeled back in
Europcar's Tony Hurel took the three bonus seconds ahead of Thor Hushovd, who moved to within one second of race leader Kenny Van Hummell in the battle for the general classification.
Tobias Ludvigsson (Argos-Shimano), Jan Ghysselinck (Cofidis) and Sondre Enger (Plussbank) got away with eight kilometres to go but they were chased down and with 2.5kms left , the likes of Europcar, NetApp-Endura, Belkin and Argos-Shimano took to the front to get their sprinters in positiion but it was BMC's Thor Hushovd who won the stage, just beating Belkin's Paul Martens, Nikias Arndt and Russell Downing.
Vacansoleil's Kenny van Hummel was fifth but with the time bonuses, Hushovd was crowned champion.