Mackie Just Misses Top 10 as De Graeve Animates Stage 2 of Tour of Shanghai

Team Novo Nordisk had another lively day at the Tour of Shanghai, with Quinten De Graeve spending part of the stage in the early breakaway and Donovan Mackie narrowly missing out on a top 10 finish, crossing the line in 14th. Celestin Wattelle rounded out the team’s day inside the top 20, in 20th.

De Graeve made the race’s early move on the descent off the stage’s long bridge, a section he knew well from racing here last year. He was quickly joined by another rider, and later a third, before the trio pressed on toward the intermediate sprint, picking up bonus seconds before the peloton reeled them back in.

The bunch came together well before the finish, setting up a mass gallop for the win. A crash marred the closing kilometres, though none of the Novo Nordisk riders were involved. Mackie fought through the finale to finish just outside the top 10 in 14th, with Wattelle following in 20th.

De Graeve was pleased to have gotten back into the kind of move he’d tried and failed to make stick before.

“I went in the same spot as last year, on the descent of the long bridge,” he said. “Last year I was alone, and the bonus sprint was 15km later, so it was a bit too far, but I remembered it was possible to make it work from that part of the stage. This time we were first with two, then three of us, and I was happy they were riders from the bigger teams.” The move held all the way to the sprint, where the break took some useful bonus seconds before being caught not long after. “After the bunch came close, and not far later we were back in the bunch,” he added.

The bonus seconds picked up along the way lifted De Graeve to 11th overall on general classification heading into the final stage.

The race concludes tomorrow with Stage 3, Fengxian to Nanhui.