Kurt Asle Arvesen

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**Kurt Asle Arvesen**
Personal information
Arvesen at the 2005 HEW Cyclassics.
Date of birth	February 9, 1975
Country	Norway
Team information
Current team	Team CSC
ProTour rank	77
Rider type	Domestique
Professional team(s)
1998-1998 1999-1999 2000-2000 2001-2003 2004-	Asics Riso Scotti Amica Chips Team Fakta Team CSC
Major wins
1 stage, Giro d'Italia

Kurt Asle Arvesen (born February 9, 1975) is a professional road bicycle racer from Eresfjord, Norway. He is currently part of the Danish Team CSC, where he has been since 2004.

After winning the gold medal at the 1997 Under-23 World Championship as an amateur, Arvesen turned pro with Italian team Asics in 1998, the same year as later Team CSC teammate Ivan Basso. The two riders moved on to other Italian teams, Riso Scotti in 1999, and on to Amica Chips in 2000, but Arvesen's three years in Italy didn't get him the results his World Under-23 Championships win had foretold. In 2001 Arvesen and Basso split up, as Arvesen moved on to Danish Team Fakta, where he experienced his most successful years culminating in a stage win in the 2003 Giro d'Italia.

At the 20th stage of the 2005 Tour.

In 2004, Team Fakta closed, and Arvesen and sports director Kim Andersen both moved on to Team CSC. At Team CSC, Kurt Asle Arvesen has been riding mostly as a domestique, but he managed to win the stage race Post Danmark Rundt as well as CSC Classic in 2004. For the 2004 Tour de France, Asle Arvesen helped team captain Ivan Basso finish second overall, and he was named the toughest rider in the peloton when he managed to finish the three-weeks long race after crashing severely on several stages. For the 2005 Tour de France he would once more ride in support of Basso. This time Arvesen had the strength to ride aggressively, and on the 17th stage of the race, he got in a breakway with 16 other riders which lasted all the way to the finish line. As the leading group slowly disintegrated, he and Italian rider Paolo Savoldelli were the last riders for the sprint, but Savoldelli was too fast for Arvesen.^[1] In the 2006 UCI ProTour spring season Arvesen got a handful of top 10 placings, when he crashed into a right-swinging car during a training ride in April.^[2] He got away with road rash and a bruised right knee and less than a week later he rode Rund um den Henninger Turm, though he didn't ride the race to its end. He finally managed to win Ster Elektrotoer, but that was not enough to secure his place in 2006 Tour de France roster. Arvesen became the runner-up in Paris-Tours.