Sibiu Cycling Tour

Neo pro Matyas Kopecky got off to a flying start in the prologue for Team Novo Nordisk at the Sibiu Cycling Tour in Romania.

The 19-year-old Czech star posted a strong time of 2:47” to finish as one of the best U23 riders and tucked nicely in the top ten in 7th place.

Matyas Kopecky:

“It’s a great feeling to start positively like this, I came here with no great expectations and to finish the first day as second best young rider and in the top ten is awesome.”

“The course ended up suiting me really well. Short, mainly flat with a few technical corners and the effort was like a cyclocross effort. One long burst at full power for 2.5km. I’m happy. Let’s try to do another good job tomorrow now and go for a result.”

General Manager, Vassilii Davidenko:

“Good start from the guys today, especially from Matyas and Hamish who both went really well. We were all sat there watching the timings because Matyas was in with a good chance of the white young riders jersey and only missed out by a few seconds in the end.

“He’s second best young rider after today and for sure we’ll be trying our best over the next few days of racing to move him up into the white jersey!”

There was to be no ‘easing in’ to the first road stage of the 2022 Sibiu Cycling Tour, 206km and four categorized climbs defined a tough first stage for Team Novo Nordisk with Spanish climber David Lozano coming through in the best shape ahead of tomorrow’s Queen Stage.

David Lozano (ESP):

“You could see from the profile that it was going to be a hard day today, but the combination of the storms and the hard early climb made it very tough. Unfortunately, I broke my front wheel on the first descent, but managed to stay upright and thanks to a quick wheel change by our mechanic Sergio, I didn’t lose too much ground. But it kind of characterized the day for us.”

“A lot of guys got dropped after the first climb and then we had three more to deal with, so even though the peloton was pretty big it never fully reformed going into the final. Matyas fought really hard, but he fell back on the last steep climb and finished just a little behind me in the end and a day like today is great experience for him.”

General manager Vassili Davidenko:

“After a really positive start yesterday in the prologue we had a rude awakening today on what was a hard day out, but the guys responded well and tried their best to follow the plan.”

“It was important to let the big teams control things, stay as sheltered as possible and do what we could to help Matyas in the final, but the race split a few times on the climbs, the rain came down and it turned into a real battle. David rode well and came home first with Matyas close behind and everyone dug deep on a very difficult stage.”

The epic Transfăgărășan road is one of the most spectacular in Europe and climbs up over 2,000 altitude meters to Bâlea Lac. This road defines the Queen Stage of Sibiu Cycling Tour and today’s third day of racing was no different. 

Team Novo Nordisk worked hard to keep team leader David Lozano in the best position possible going onto the climb, but the Catalan would have to do the rest. Climbing for close to 25km, the road takes no prisoners and Lozano went deep to finish close to the leading group. 

David Lozano (ESP):

“At times It feels never ending this climb, you come out of the trees after the first 10km and you’re feeling ok. Then you come out of a corner and see the next 10km rising up in front of you like a wall of switchbacks.”

“It was tougher than last year today, I came close to dropping like a stone in the last 10km, but I managed to recover a little and ride my own tempo to the finish. The group got small really quickly on the climb and we were split all over the road at the end, but chapeau to Bora. They made the race hard today and finished it off.”

General manager Vassili Davidenko:

“David did a solid job today. We were under no illusions about hard it was going to be and his task was to stay with the leaders for as long as possible on the climb and he did that.”

“One more day to go and it’s going to be interesting with the split stage format. Individual time trial in the morning and a short 100km road stage late afternoon. Our objective will be to try and go for Matyas if it comes down to a sprint in the afternoon, so let’s just get round in the TT and save some energy for the second part.”

Photo credits: @mariostiehl

Five stages over four days of fabulous racing at the Sibiu Cycling Tour came to a close with a short 99km road stage tonight and a sunset finish in the historic center of Sibiu.

Team Novo Nordisk enjoyed a positive race with Spanish climber David Lozano and neo pro Matyas Kopecky both starting and finishing well and veteran Hungarian climber Peter Kusztor blowing off the cobwebs in the final individual time trial.

David Lozano (ESP):

“It’s been a really enjoyable few days – if you can call such hard racing enjoyable! I had good memories form last years race and this time around the Sibiu Tour didn’t disappoint.”

“I think we rode well as a team despite a couple of setbacks including losing Lucas to a broken collarbone on stage 1, and two time trials in two days doesn’t really play to our strengths. But we’re in good shape for GP Kranj in Slovenia in a couple of weeks and then the big one at the Tour of Poland at the end of July.”

Matyas Kopecky (CZE):

“This is my first season as a professional and I’m enjoying every race I take part in. Trying to do my best and learn as much as possible as quickly as possible. Getting a good start in the prologue was great and we worked really well as a team together again today.”

“I wanted to try and have a go in the sprint today and we pushed hard, but the breakaway managed to stay away. Congrats to them and that’s another valuable lesson learned.”

General manager Vassili Davidenko:

“We overcame some challenges these last few days and managed to start and finish in a positive way. It’s a difficult parcours here and with six WorldTour teams taking part the level was high from the start.”

“We came in straight off the back of our summer camp in Italy and the guys have shown a lot of hunger and desire to do well. It’s good to see and we’re already looking ahead to Slovenia and Poland now.”