Neo-pros Test Their Legs on Tour de Taiwan Queen Stage

Race: Tour de Taiwan, Stage 4

Start/Finish: Nantou/Nantou, Taiwan

Distance: 166.6 kilometers

Nantou, Taiwan — Wednesday served as the Tour de Taiwan’s Queen Stage. Stage 4, which also served as the penultimate day, began and ended in Nantou.

The 166.6-kilometer stage featured nearly 800 meters of climbing with two substantial categorized climbs. Team Novo Nordisk’s neo-pros Brian Kamstra and Rik van IJzendoorn were tasked with testing their legs against the peloton on these challenging climbs. The final climb was situated approximately 15 km from the finish. Edwin Avila (Team Illuminate) took the stage win from a small front group while Kamstra finished in the first main group.

Team Novo Nordisk Sport Director Pavel Cherkasov:

“Today was the most challenging climbing stage of the race. For most of the day, our riders stayed in the main bunch. When the race hit the climbs, Brian and Rik focused on staying with the front group. Brian stayed there until the end with Rik only falling back in the final kilometers. The rest of the team stayed focused on saving their legs for tomorrow’s final, relatively flat stage.”

The world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team finishes racing at the Tour de Taiwan on Thursday with Stage 5. The 198.8-km climbing stage begins and ends in Pingtung.

Results: 

• 1^st: Edwin Avila (Team Illuminate): 4:17:10
• 2^nd: Benjamin Prades (Team UKYO): same time as Avila
• 3^rd: Alan Marangoni (Nippo-Vini Fantini): same time as Avila

Team Novo Nordisk Results: 

• Brian Kamstra: 27^th: 0:47 behind Avila
• Rik van IJzendoorn: 41^st: 1:44 behind Avila
• Chris Williams: 53^rd: 7:53 behind Avila
• Stephen Clancy: 84^st: 15:38 behind Avila
• Quentin Valognes: 85^th: 15:38 behind Avila