Wattelle Caps Tour of Taihu Lake with Podium on Final Stage

Team Novo Nordisk closed out the Tour of Taihu Lake in style, as Célestin Wattelle crossed the line in the front of the sprint on the final stage and was later promoted to third after two riders ahead of him were disqualified.

With the GC largely settled, the team went into the last stage focused on working together and riding smart.

“Our main goal for this stage was just to communicate well between us,” Wattelle said. “Bailey and Sam tried to follow a few attacks, but the group came back together each time. We then all stayed together and saved energy for the final.”

That teamwork paid off in the closing kilometres, with Wattelle’s teammates delivering him to the front for the sprint.

“The guys put me in the front, and at 1km to go I was in Quinten’s [De Graeve] wheel,” he explained. “When he started to hit his limit at 500m to go, Astana came past us, so I switched wheels – the timing was perfect. I followed them until they started sprinting, and when I started mine I didn’t win any space on them. They were just stronger than me.”

Wattelle crossed the line just off the podium, before two riders ahead of him were disqualified, elevating him to third. A fitting result to close out a race in which he steadily improved, finishing 19th, 17th and 16th – and finally on the podium on the last stage.

“Really happy to finish the race in China like this,” Wattelle said. “Also very happy that we improved day after day, even after Donovan’s [Mackie] crash.”

The result rounds off a positive week for Team Novo Nordisk at the Tour of Taihu Lake, with the team showing consistent aggression and improving form from the opening stage through to the finish.

As the world’s first all-diabetes professional cycling team, every result is a reminder of what’s possible living with diabetes, and a podium to close out the race in China is exactly the kind of story the team was built to tell – proof that diabetes doesn’t have to stand in the way of chasing, and achieving, big goals.