Tour de Taiwan wraps with near misses and Poli sprinting for the final
16 March 2023
The 2023 Tour de Taiwan finished today with Team Novo Nordisk reflecting on coming close to the desired result and a great experience being back racing in Asia.
Head Sports director Massimo Podenzana:
“We started this race so well with good stage results, high position on the overall classification and lots of optimism for how the race would play out for us. Unfortunately, as can happen in any elite sports, the tables turned and after stage two we were left in a position where we were fighting to get back in contention on the GC and having to take risks on the stages.”
“The risky strategy almost paid off with Hamish on stage four when he spent the day in the break, attacked late and was caught meters from the line. Umberto sprinted into the top ten on stage three and he had another go today but missed out and finished in 13th. There were certainly good moments over the five days racing here, but we need to take our chances and make these opportunities count because we come away empty handed now and that’s not good enough.”
Umberto Poli:
“It was a long stage today at 145km and it was quite an active day throughout. I felt good from the beginning, was positioned well on the climbs and always within the front 30 riders, at that point the race was still quite controlled.”
“Going into the final it started to get more hectic and there was the usual chaos that occurs when the bunch starts building up to the sprint, so I knew I had to stay on my toes and fight for position. I was a little boxed in and I couldn’t get out to really hit full gas, so I’m disappointed with 13th, my legs were better than that.”