TNN Heading to PostNord Danmark Rundt with High Ambitions

14 August 2019

Race: PostNord Danmark Rundt – Tour of Denmark (August 21-25, 2019)

Country: Denmark

Total Distance: 727 kilometers

Race Class: 2.HC

Team Novo Nordisk is eager to race its seventh consecutive PostNord Danmark Rundt and animate the Danish race that is home to the team’s title sponsor, Novo Nordisk. The UCI 2.HC race is the world’s first all-diabetes professional cycling team first race since the Tour de Pologne where Charles Planet secured the overall Most Active Rider jersey. The five-day race kicks off on August 21st in Silkeborg.

“We are very excited to race again at the Tour of Denmark. The team is showing a strong performance this year, and we are bring a solid and competitive roster to fight for a good result in Denmark,” said Team Novo Nordisk’s General Manager Vassili Davidenko. “We are racing in Novo Nordisk’s home country and this brings extra motivation to perform to the best of our abilities in front of our fans and supporters. We hope to once again show what’s possible with diabetes and are ready to seize this amazing opportunity to be protagonists in a race close to our hearts.”

Twenty teams will contest the 29th edition of the Tour of Denmark, including three World Tour teams and 10 Pro Continental squads.

Team Novo Nordisk’s roster features Charles Planet (FRA) who last year won the Tour of Denmark’s Julemaerkefonden Fighter Jersey on Stage 3 after taking maximum points in the hill classification, winning the first intermediate sprint and being runner-up through the second sprint. The Frenchman is always motivated to display his attacking racing style at the PostNord Danmark Rundt.

Andrea Peron (ITA), who has collected two top 10 results in World Tour races this year, will also be part of the #ChangingDiabetes squad alongside his countryman Umberto Poli (ITA). Joonas Henttala (FIN), Peter Kusztor (HUN) and neo-pro Declan Irvine (AUS) complete the six-rider team.

Taking on his fifth PostNord Danmark Rundt, Planet has had a standout season featuring in multiple breakaways, notably in Milano-Sanremo, Tour of California, and recently as many as four times in Tour de Pologne where he wore the King of the Mountains Jersey for four days and brought home the blue “Most Active Rider” jersey.

“It’s with a lot of motivation and enthusiasm that we are returning to the Tour of Denmark, a race held in the home of our main sponsor, Novo Nordisk,” Planet said. “I’ve just finished an amazing Tour de Pologne and confidence is high. I will fight every day to get the best results possible for the team. Along with my teammates, we are ready to give 100 percent to keep the momentum going in what has been a great season so far!”

The 170-kilometer opening stage of this year’s PostNord Danmark Rundt starts and finishes in Silkeborg and will take the peloton past some beautiful Danish scenery before three 5-km finishing laps, which should set up a bunch sprint finish. Stage 2 will be a pan-flat 17 km individual time trial in Grindsted that will serve as a launchpad for the fight in the overall classification.

The queen stage will arrive on day three with the peloton tackling a 200-km long affair between Holstebro and Vejle with three laps on a 5.7-km circuit complete with a 400-meter steep section of double digits gradient in the final kilometer. This will be a crucial day for the GC contenders as the stage winner should seize the leader’s jersey and most likely keep it until the final stage in Frederiksberg. The penultimate day will start in Korsør and head northbound to Asnæs Indelukke over a 175.2-km parcours that includes three laps on a 13.5-km closing circuit with a tricky climb of 450m at 7 percent average gradients will prove decisive in the fight for stage honors.

The PostNord Danmark Rundt concludes on Sunday, August 25th with the ‘classic’ stage in Frederiksberg that will start in Roskilde, and head eastbound over a 165-km flat course before concluding with 10 laps on a 6.7-km finishing circuit where the fast men of the peloton will seek to shine in a sprint finale.

Team Novo Nordisk Roster PostNord Danmark Rundt -Tour of Denmark (August 21-25):
Joonas Henttala (FIN), Declan Irvine (AUS), Peter Kusztor (HUN), Andrea Peron (ITA), Charles Planet (FRA), Umberto Poli (ITA)

Sport Director: Vassili Davidenko (USA), Massimo Podenzana (ITA)