Sprint Finish for Team Novo Nordisk at Challenge Mallorca

29 January 2017

Race: Trofeo Playa de Palma, Challenge Mallorca

Start/Finish: Playa de Palma/Palma, Spain

Distance: 162km

Palma, Spain — Team Novo Nordisk finished its first week of racing in the 2017 season along the yacht harbor of Spain’s largest Balearic island on Sunday, showing cohesive teamwork and distinct progress ahead of a busy year.

With a mostly flat day ahead, the peloton departed the beachside resort town of Playa de Palma for 161km around Mallorca before heading in to the island’s largest city of Palma for three circuit laps under sunny skies. A five-rider breakaway led much of the early portion until the day’s only climb, when the peloton closed the four-minute gap to the leaders and began to bring the sprint teams forward on the descent to Palma.

Daniel McLay (Fortuneo-Vital concept) sprinted to the win, with Javier Megias finishing as Team Novo Nordisk’s best-placed rider 11 seconds back..

Sport Director Pavel Cherkasov

“We started four days of hard racing in Mallorca with our eyes open, and we saw the riders come together with desire and purpose each day in the hills, the wind and the rain. Today our teamwork was excellent, and the goal to keep Martijn at the front up the last climb was successful. That’s the result of good training in January and looks even better for the rest of the year.”

Romain Gioux

“My first four days of professional racing are now finished and I am looking forward to coming back at the end of February to race in Italy. The intensity and speed at this level are both very high, but for me it’s even more impressive to see the level of teamwork that all the riders do every time we start.”

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing at the Dubai Tour (January 30^th) with a fresh squad of riders.