Lozano showing signs of early season form in Valencia

A frustrating day out for the world’s first all diabetes professional cycling team on today’s third stage of Volta à la Comunitat Valenciana with repeated breakway attempts thwarted and David Lozano once again the first across the line for Team Novo Nordisk at the head of the second group.

After strong winds resulted in the neutralization of the race for the general classifcation on yesterday’s individual time trial proceedings settled back to normal for today’s 158km run from Orihuela to San Vincente del Raspeig.

A flat opening 100km came before the main climb of the day, the category two Alto del Tibi and the early stages were uneventful apart from a drawn-out battle for the breakaway. Finally forming after 40km of racing with eight riders going clear and staying away until the race ignited on the climb and the fast run to the finish that followed.

“We wanted to try and get someone up the road and part of the break,” said Lozano. “But it took so long to form, and we’d spent our chips trying repeatedly that when it finally went, we missed it. Myself and both Hamish’s all tried early on, but it was another fast start and over those opening flat kilometers we didn’t sniff out the right move.”

“I felt like I was climbing quite well over the Alto del Tibi but I dropped one kilometer from the summit and the descent was fast and hectic with a few guys crashing. It remained fast until the finish, but we were minutes back at that point, so I tried to stay calm at the front of the second group and look ahead to tomorrow’s big day on the climbs.”

Despite the positive signs from Lozano, more frustration followed for TNN with Italian Antonio Polga involved in a crash on the descent towards the finish, the 26-year-old finished the stage and will undergo checks ahead of stage four.