Kopecky 13th in wet edition of Cholet Agglo Tour

A weekend of frustration continued for Team Novo Nordisk at a cold and rainy Cholet Agglo Tour with sprinter Matyas Kopecky finding little joy on the circuits of the ancient Loire town and finishing in 13th place.

The race started well for TNN despite the inclement conditions with French neo pro Anton Muller and Aussie Declan Irvine both jumping into the early breakaway.

As the lead grew close to three minutes the peloton began to take notice and started to intensify he chase on the approach to Cholet.

“The plan from the beginning was to have Anton and Declan in the breakaway and they did a great job,” said sports Director Gennady Mikhaylov. “They got some valuable exposure for the team and took some pressure off their teammates in the bunch. First goal achieved.”

“Second goal was always going to be harder and Matyas did well to give everything he had on the last laps to try and chase down the three leaders. He was unlucky that his group wasn’t so collaborative and unfortunately they were caught by the rest of the bunch on the last lap. Game over.”

After a frustrating day in Belgium on Friday Kopecky was motivated to move on and go for the result in France today and despite having the legs and the desire, circumstances went against the 22 year old.

“As a team we had done almost everything right today,” began Kopecky. “Anton and Declan made the break, the guys looked after me well in the bunch and when we hit the circuits in Cholet I was feeling good.”

“Once the break was caught it got faster and faster, then with three laps to go there was a crash and three guys got away. I knew it was dangerous and I was chasing in a small group but there was no collaboration. The three stayed away to fight for the win and we got caught. C’est la vie, but really annoying because it’s better to try and fight for the win instead of fourth place.”