Tirreno-Adriatico

(Photos: ©TDWSport)

Race: Tirreno Adriatico

Start/Finish: Lido di Camaiore/Lido di Camaiore

Distance: 22.7km

Lido di Camaiore, Italy — Team Novo Nordisk began a week-long World Tour race on Wednesday, racing along Italy’s western seacoast in the opening stage of the 52nd edition of Tirreno-Adriatico. Under sunny skies and with a favoring wind on the return leg, eight riders from the world’s first all-diabetic professional cycling team set out on the 22.7km course.

To compete in the specialist discipline of the team trial the squad prepared ahead of the race on their Colnago K-Zero framesets, and equipped themselves with rear disc wheels from Ursus, aerodynamic helmets from Catlike and technical handlebars and extensions from Full Speed Ahead.

With an optimal start time at 15:00 CET, the riders rolled out onto the flat, out and back course with full international television coverage in front of thousands of cycling fans, and came home to the finish all together save one rider who experienced a no-fault flat tire in the final kilometers of racing.

Stage winners and two-time world champions BMC Racing Team won the 22.7km stage in 23:20. Team Novo Nordisk finished 2:52 off the pace with an average speed of 51.985kph.

GM Vassili Davidenko

“The guys did well today, and this was their first time trial of 2017. The turns were nice and smooth, and they finished together save for Romain’s flat tire. The teamwork was strong, and for the first outing of the season we see the growth in our experience and improvement in the time trial discipline. We have a hard week ahead of us, and the team is ready for a good showing at Tirreno Adriatico.”

Fabio Calabria

“We worked well together, and the time trial was good. We’re looking to be aggressive in the race, and to make sure people know we are here, to look for the opportunities as they come and race our bikes as best we can. We’ll see how the race unfolds every day and try to sneak into the breakaways and do what we can.”

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing all week at the 52nd Tirreno-Adriatico, with hard stages in the Italian mountains and unpredictable spring weather ahead. The final stage next Tuesday is an individual time trial on Italy’s eastern coast along the Adriatic Sea.

Gallery:

Results: 

• 1st : BMC Racing Team (USA) : 23:20
• 2nd : Quick Step Floors (Belgium) : 23:37
• 3rd : FDJ (France) : 23:42

Team Novo Nordisk Results: 

• Team Novo Nordisk (USA) : 26:12

(Photos: ©TDWSport)

(Photos: ©TDWSport)

Race: Tirreno-Adriatico, stage 2

Start/Finish: Camaiore/Pomerance

Distance: 229km

Pomerance, Italy — Team Novo Nordisk rider Charles Planet escaped into the Thursday’s main breakaway with five other riders and spent the next 200km ahead of the peloton in the twisting and turning Tuscan countryside.

Planet, 24, found optimal cooperation with his fellow riders on a sunny day leading out and away from the Italian seacoast, and with them quickly established a maximum advantage of more than five minutes, along the way taking points in both the sprint and mountains classifications of the week-long World Tour stage race.

Riders from the team of race leader Damiano Caruso assumed control of the chase once among the rolling hills of Tuscany, and began to close the gap as the leaders worked their way towards the picturesque Etruscan village of Pomerance. Planet and his fellow escapees did not wave goodbye to the TV cameras without a fight, and only in the final 25km of the race found themselves back among the rest of the peloton.

British rider Geraint Thomas of Team Sky won the stage in just under six hours, with the leader’s blue jersey shifting shoulders from Caruso to his BMC Racing teammate Greg Van Avermaet of Belgium.

Charles Planet

“Since the beginning of the season I have been waiting for a good day for me. I found it today. I felt really good, and I know I have really good form, so the sacrifices and hard work have paid off. I am really tired after today, but I will rest and recover tonight. Try again in the next days? Why not, we’ll see tomorrow.”

GM Vassili Davidenko

“We had a realistic target today to get in the breakaway, and we did a really good job with Charles Planet. Six hours is a long day, and Charles and the rest of the guys really did a good job at the beginning to be active, as well as to help each other throughout the stage. At this level of racing, to have one of our guys on television for five and a half hours all serves as excellent motivation for our riders, our staff and our fans. We’re here, we’re fighting and we want to do the very best that we can. In the next few stages we’ll work for even more positive news.”

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing all week at the 52nd Tirreno-Adriatico, with hard stages in the Italian mountains and unpredictable spring weather ahead. The final stage next Tuesday is an individual time trial on Italy’s eastern coast along the Adriatic Sea.

Gallery:

Results: 

• 1st : Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) : 5:51:44
• 2nd : Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) : 0:09 back
• 3rd : Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) : st

Team Novo Nordisk Results: 

• 111st : Joonas Henttala : 8:40
• 135th : Javier Megias : 8:40
• 152nd : Andrea Peron : 12:42
• 154th : Romain Gioux : 12:42
• 156th : Martijn Verschoor : 12:42
• 157th : Fabio Calabria : 12:42
• 159th : David Lozano : 12:42
• 171st : Charles Planet : 12:42

(Photos: ©TDWSport)

Team Novo Nordisk rider Joonas Henttala recaps a tough and windy stage 3 of the 2017 Tirreno-Adriatico.

Race: Stage 3, Tirreno Adriatico

Start/Finish: Monterotondo Marittimo/Montalto di Castro

Distance: 204km

Montalto di Castro, Italy — Team Novo Nordisk found themselves laid up behind a late-race crash on Friday during stage three Tirreno Adriatico, the week-long Italian World Tour stage race that serves to kick off the European cycling season in earnest.

Joonas Henttala only just missed the day’s breakaway after a slight wheel-touch at the beginning of the 25km descent at the start of the race kept him from slipping away with six other riders for the 204km stage.

Instead Team Novo Nordisk was content to ride in the peloton as the race moved through the rolling hills of southern Tuscany and into Lazio, the region of Rome. When the race leader’s team began to accelerate at around 40km to go, Javier Megias and Henttala positioned themselves near the front of the peloton to absorb the benefit of speed and blocking from crosswinds that grew stronger nearer to the finish.

In the final kilometer a slight crash between sprint teams split the peloton and created a slight gap between the first 20 riders and the rest of the field, where Team Novo Nordisk found themselves as the final 800m turned slightly uphill to the finish.

World Champion Peter Sagan won the stage in a sprint, while the race leader’s blue jersey again changed hands among BMC Racing teammates, leaving Greg Van Avermaet and moving over to Rohan Dennis.

Joonas Henttala

“The breakaway went at kilometer zero, and I wanted to be in it, but unfortunately I had an incident where I knocked with another rider in the neutral section on the downhill and wound up at the very back when it all went down. The first two hours went smoothly, but then the big teams ramped it up in the last 50-60k. We had a lot of up and down, a lot of short climbs and a lot of crosswinds. Not the best day, but we continue fighting.”

GM Vassili Davidenko

“The goal today was to go into the breakaway again, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. A race is a race, it’s unpredictable. We missed our chance, but the next objective was to stay safe in the peloton, especially towards the end of the race as we began to deal with some heavy winds. Tomorrow’s stage is very hard, very challenging, and very difficult. Saving our legs today should should provide us with an advantage tomorrow.”

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing all week at the 52nd Tirreno-Adriatico, with hard stages in the Italian mountains and unpredictable spring weather ahead. The final stage next Tuesday is an individual time trial on Italy’s eastern coast along the Adriatic Sea.

Gallery:

Results: 

• 1st : Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) : 4:51:59
• 2nd : Elia Viviani (Team Sky) : st
• 3rd : Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Soudal) : st

Team Novo Nordisk Results: 

• 114th : Joonas Henttala : 2:59
• 141st : Javier Megias : 4:16
• 154th : Andrea Peron : 9:13
• 157th : Charles Planet : 9:13
• 160th : Martijn Verschoor : 12:42
• 161st : David Lozano : 9:13
• 163rd : Fabio Calabria : 9:13
• 164th : Romain Gioux : 9:13

(Photos: ©TDWSport)

(Photos: ©TDWSport)

Race: Tirreno-Adriatico, stage 4

Start/Finish: Montalto di Castro/Terminillo

Distance: 171km

Terminillo, Italy — Romain Gioux set out to ride in his first World Tour breakaway on Saturday on the Queen Stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, slipping into a 6-man group at the beginning of the race to build a maximum 10-minute advantage before the final climb at the end of stage four.

Gioux, in his first full year as a professional cyclist, worked up steady cooperation with his fellow escapees as strong headwinds pummelled the group for more than four hours. The 30-year old Frenchman joined Team Novo Nordisk’s pro team last year as a stagiaire, and quickly rose through the ranks to earn a starting spot in 2017.

With the leaders’ teams fully focused on the final 16km climb up to the ski base at Terminillo, Gioux and his breakaway companions were chased down in the final hour and caught with under 20km to go. But not before Gioux waved farewell to his first-ever breakaway in the pro peloton.

Colombian rider Nairo Quintana won the stage and took over the leader’s blue jersey on the snowy mountain outside of Rome, and now leads the race with three stages remaining, including Sunday’s punishing 209km hilly traverse into Fermo. The race ends Tuesday with a short, individual time trial along the Adriatic seacoast.

Romain Gioux

“It’s important for the team to be in the breakaway, and we went immediately after the start. There were six of us in the group, but the two World Tour riders were clearly the strongest of the bunch. Still, the cooperation was very good, because the whole day was a lot of work and a lot of headwind. The last 16k was fast for the leaders, so when I got to the snow in the final 3k I felt very tired but very happy.”

GM Vassili Davidenko

“Romain is a new rider to the men’s pro team this season, and we are all very proud of him today, and he has every reason to be pleased with his performance in the breakaway. The stage to Terminillo is always a tense and nervous affair, with so many of the big teams keen to control the breakaway and set a strong tempo. He went over and above himself out there on the road, and he made us all very proud of Team Novo Nordisk..”

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing all week at the 52nd Tirreno-Adriatico, with hard stages in the Italian mountains and unpredictable spring weather ahead. The final stage next Tuesday is an individual time trial on Italy’s eastern coast along the Adriatic Sea.

Gallery:

Results: 

• 1st : Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) : 5:27:22
• 2nd : Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) : 0:19
• 3rd : Adam Yates (ORICA-Scott) : 0:24

Team Novo Nordisk Results: 

• 92nd : Joonas Henttala : 20:22
• 139th : Martijn Verschoor : 26:37
• 140th : Andrea Peron : 26:37
• 147th : Fabio Calabria : 26:37
• 154th : David Lozano : 26:37
• 156th : Charles Planet : 26:37
• 159th : Javier Megias : 26:37
• 169th : Romain Gioux : 27:38

(Photos: ©TDWSport)

(Photos: ©TDWSport)

Race: Tirreno-Adriatico, stage 5

Start/Finish: Rieti/Fermo, Italy

Distance: 209km

Fermo, Italy — Team Novo Nordisk and the rest of the professional peloton paid tribute on Sunday to the victims of last August’s earthquake near Amatrice, rolling quietly past the site of ruined homes and uprooted villages during stage five of the Italian World Tour stage race Tirreno-Adriatico.

On a sunny day in the Apennine mountains, chasing a breakaway with a two-minute advantage, race radio passed information of a moment of silence in the caravan for the nearly 300 victims of the 6.2 terremoto that struck at just after 3:30 on a Wednesday morning.

After passing new construction zones and groups of villagers assembled by the side of the road to cheer on the race, riders from all 22 teams resumed their professional duty as cyclists and continued to chase the 11-man breakaway. As the race approached the finish line in Fermo the peloton split up, with Team Novo Nordisk active on the steep climbs into the picturesque village overlooking the Adriatic Sea.

Romain Gioux and Charles Planet did not start Sunday’s stage. Planet resumes racing next week in Milano-Sanremo, Gioux is set to come back for a block of racing at the end of March in his native France.

World Champion Peter Sagan of Slovakia won stage five, and race leader Nairo Quintana from Colombia kept his overall lead and the blue jersey ahead of Monday’s stage six.

Javier Megias

“We saw the devastation of the houses and the villages along the way. Hopefully the reconstruction after the earthquake will be done soon and people will be able to move back soon into their homes. For us the race is almost over, with just one more group stage on Monday. Hopefully we can get into the breakaway again and then the breakaway can stay away. It’s a hard race, but we’re almost there.”

GM Vassili Davidenko

“Charles and Romain both went above and beyond themselves this week in breakaways, and each rode at the front of a World Tour stage race for more than five hours. That’s exceptional in any situation, and at the beginning of the season it’s a tremendous effort that we want to respect and preserve. We’ll see them both again soon, and we want to make sure they have a good, solid recovery for when they come back.”

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing all week at the 52nd Tirreno-Adriatico, with hard stages in the Italian mountains and unpredictable spring weather ahead. The final stage next Tuesday is an individual time trial on Italy’s eastern coast along the Adriatic Sea.

Results: 

• 1st : Peter Sagan (BORA-Hansgrohe) : 5:00:05
• 2nd : Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) : st
• 3rd : Primoz Roglic (Team LottoNL-Jumbo) : st

Team Novo Nordisk Results: 

• 120th : David Lozano : 24:58
• 123rd : Andrea Peron : 24:58
• 126th : Joonas Henttala : 24:58
• 128th : Javier Megias : 24:58
• 137th : Martijn Verschoor : 24:58
• Fabio Calabria : DNF
• Romain Gioux : DNS
• Charles Planet : DNS

(Photos: ©TDWSport)

Race: Tirreno-Adriatico, stage 6

Start/Finish: Ascoli Piceno/Civitanova Marche

Distance: 168km

Civitanova, Italy — Joonas Henttala put himself in the breakaway at Tirreno Adriatico on Monday, attacking from the start with seven other riders on the next to last day of the Italian World Tour stage race.

Henttala and his breakaway companions attacked for different reasons, as four riders from the leading group represented competing pairs from two teams in pursuit of valuable points in the mountain jersey competition. The rider from Finland in his fifth season as a professional was seeking the finish line on a rare day when an escape might possibly stay away to the end.

With a maximum advantage of three minutes on a twisting road through the region of Marche after a festive depart from the scenic town of Ascoli Piceno, Henttala and his companions found themselves stopped by the race jury after more than 100km in order to allow the chasing peloton to make up lost time when the bunch was delayed temporarily by a passenger train crossing the race route.

Once back underway the infighting between the two teams in Henttala’s group kept the rivals from full devotion to the breakaway’s chances, and the Team Novo Nordisk rider found himself doing the lion’s share of the work. On the final climb and under attack by the relatively fresh riders, with just under a minute advantage to the bunch, Henttala lost contact with the breakaway as the peloton chased down the leaders.

Argentinian sprinter Fernando Gaviria won the stage in a sprint. Colombia’s Nairo Quintana holds on to the leader’s blue jersey ahead of Tuesday’s final 10km individual time trial.

Joonas Henttala

“We had the GPM jersey leader in our group, and they were going for the climbs. Then 300m before the first KOM the race jury stopped us because the peloton was held up by a train and we needed to stop, too. I ended up paying for that because I was doing most of the work in the breakaway and in the last 30-40k I was pretty empty.”

GM Vassili Davidenko

“The objective today was to be in the breakaway, and see if we had enough time at the end to go for the finish. Joonas did a great job, but in the end he overexerted himself a little bit and was working a little bit too much. He paid a high price on the final climb. Overall it was a really positive day, because if you want to do well you have to put yourself on the line. Joonas tried today and next time he will have his power more accurately spread out.”

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing at the 52nd Tirreno-Adriatico. The final stage on Tuesday is an individual time trial on Italy’s eastern coast along the Adriatic Sea.

Gallery:

Results: 

• 1st : Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) : 4:09:31
• 2nd : Peter Sagan (BORA-Hansgrohe) : st
• 3rd : Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) : st

Team Novo Nordisk Results: 

• 90th : David Lozano : 0:43
• 117th : Andrea Peron : 3:12
• 132nd : Javier Megias : 5:11
• 129th : Martijn Verschoor : 5:11
• 155th : Joonas Henttala : 8:20

(Photos: ©TDWSport)

Race: Tirreno-Adriatico, stage 7

Start/Finish: San Benedetto del Tronto

Distance: 10km

San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy — Team Novo Nordisk completed its first ever appearance at Tirreno-Adriatico on Tuesday, finishing the one-week World Tour Italian stage race with a 10km individual time trial along the shores of the Adriatic sea.

In seven stages over 1000km, exchanging the cold surf of the Tyrrhenian sea for the calm waters of the Adriatic, the world’s first all-diabetic professional cycling team fought for and earned a spot in three race-changing breakaways to bring a message of inspiration, education and empowerment to the more than 450 million people around the world affected by diabetes.

Charles Planet, Romain Gioux and Joonas Henttala all found the teamwork and support of Javier Megias, David Lozano, Fabio Calabria and Martijn Verschoor each and every day among the more than 175 professional cyclists at the starting line.

Television viewers from more than 125 countries watched live as the riders left the Appuan Alps and crossed the Appenine Mountains and the snows of Alto Lazio before Tuesday’s promenade along the streets of San Benedetto del Tronto.

Australian Rohan Dennis won the final time trial in just over 11 minutes. Colombian Nairo Quintana held on to the leader’s blue jersey to win the overall classification for the second year, with a cumulative time of 25:26:27.

Martijn Verschoor

“It’s a really hard race at Tirreno-Adriatico. It’s the World Tour, and it’s one of the biggest races in the Spring, We came here with the objective to get in the breakaway and to race at a high level in order to prepare for our primary goal at the Tour of California and other races later in the season. We achieved three breakaways, which is really good for the team, and we finished with really good form for the next races.”

GM Vassili Davidenko

“Tirreno-Adriatico is a unique race, because it’s still very early in the season and many teams bring their very best riders. For our guys the objective was to be in at least two breakaways this week and I’m happy to say ‘mission accomplished’. For the riders and staff the whole week was excellent teamwork to stay focussed and at the front. Now we take a few days to rest and get ready to come back and race again at Milano-Sanremo”

Gallery:

Results: 

• 1st : Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team) : 11:18
• 2nd : Jos Van Emden (Team LottoNL-Jumbo) : 0:03
• 3rd : Michael Hepburn (ORICA-Scott) : same time as Dennis

Team Novo Nordisk Results: 

• 123nd : Javier Megias : 1:28
• 132nd : Martijn Verschoor : 1:39
• 137th : Andrea Peron : 1:50
• 144th : David Lozano : 1:54
• 151st : Joonas Henttala : 2:08

(Photos: ©TDWSport)