McDonald Animates the Break as Wattelle Battles to 19th on Stage 2 of Tour of Taihu Lake

Team Novo Nordisk kept the pressure on at the Tour of Taihu Lake, with Bailey McDonald spending much of a flat, chaotic stage 2 in the day’s breakaway before Célestin Wattelle rounded things off with a battling 19th place in the bunch sprint.

McDonald made his move around 45 kilometres in, joining a six-rider group that worked well together out front.

“Another nice day of racing, I felt strong again and jumped into a six-rider move,” McDonald said. “We worked really well together to give ourselves a chance to fight for the bonus sprint, which was my biggest goal of the day as I try to move into the top 10 on GC.”

The bonus sprint didn’t go his way, and a flat tyre later on ended his day at the front.

“A poorly timed sprint meant I missed out on taking seconds, which I’m disappointed about,” he said. “After around 60km out front with my breakaway companions, I picked up a front flat, which brought me back into the peloton.”

Back in the bunch, McDonald turned his attention to setting up his teammate for the finish.

“We worked well together to position Célestin for the sprint, and he did a great job holding his own in a really fast, chaotic finish,” McDonald said. “We’re still missing that big result, but it’s nice to be racing positively like this. The results will come.”

For Wattelle, the day’s plan had been simple from the start: get one of himself or McDonald into the break to chase bonus seconds.

“After a few attacks, Bailey went in the breakaway, so one of the goals was done,” Wattelle explained. “I was feeling good today, so we decided to go for me in the sprint.”

With the finale splintering the bunch, Wattelle leaned on a teammate to stay in contention before making his own move in the closing metres.

“The final was very chaotic, but in the last 5km I found Richard, who helped me hold a good position,” he said. “The speed of the sprint was high, so it was hard to make a difference once I started mine. Nineteenth isn’t bad after yesterday, and we have more opportunities coming up.”