Big day out in the break for debutant Dunnewind & top ten for Peron in Oman

Dutch neo-pro Jan Dunnewind showed everyone how to make a dream debut in the professional ranks by attacking early to form part of the opening stage breakaway at the Tour of Oman before Italian sprinter Andrea Peron took over, flying into the top ten to start the season on a high.

Starting his first senior professional race for Team Novo Nordisk, the 23-year-old climber led from the front as what started out as a five man move reduced to three before finally being caught with 40km to go.

Jan Dunnewind (NLD):

“Ah, it really is a dream come true. I said when I signed my pro contract that one of my objectives was to get up the road in the breakaway and to have achieved that on the first stage of my first race is amazing. Maybe I should have set a harder goal!”

“I felt like I made some good progression this winter and I am feeling like the training is benefitting me. It was a hot day. Coming from the Netherlands I had a little temperature shock here, but I was pleasantly surprised with how many people were on the side of the road and we received some great support today.”

“I was hoping to get the white jersey. I knew there where bonus seconds on the intermediate sprints and saw that if I got some seconds there, I could be in with a chance. But unfortunately for me Kaden Groves finished third in the sprint and took more seconds than me, so congratulations to him. I’ll have to see if I can get up there again.”

Andrea Peron (ITA):

“It feels really good to start with a top ten result. Already I’m feeling much better than last season and I was fifth or sixth wheel going in but slipped back a little within the last 100 meters. There’ll be more opportunities here in the sprints, but to start how we did today in such a positive fashion in is really satisfying.”

Sport Director, Gennady Mikhaylov (RUS):

“We had two goals today. Get in the break and try to look after Andrea to have a go in the sprint and we achieved both our targets. The day started out perfectly, Jan did a great job to be alive to the breakaway opportunity and make sure he was in there. He showed great hunger and desire to be in the right place and then he worked hard to make sure he stayed there for as long as possible.”

“All of our new riders are showing great desire and motivation early on and that’s rubbing off on the older guys, we need to be visible in races and show ourselves. For us, getting in the breakaway is the best way to do that.”

“Having Jan up the road meant that we could sit back in the peloton and stay sheltered, keeping Andrea in position and once the break was finally caught, we could concentrate all our efforts on Andrea. The team did a great job, we stayed together, and Andrea produced a strong result. All in all, a good day.”