Peloton Pays Triubte To Earthquake Victims at Tirreno-Adriatico

12 March 2017

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: