Full Speed Prologue Kicks Off Tour of Taihu Lake

10 October 2017

Race: Tour of Taihu Lake, prologue

Start/Finish: Wuxi/Wuxi, China

Distance: 5.3 kilometers

WUXI, CHINA – A flat, prologue start to the Tour of Taihu Lake on Tuesday as Team Novo Nordisk launched into October racing at the Asia Tour.

Chris Williams had the squad’s top time on the 5.3km circuit in Wuxi, a city of nearly 6 million on the Yangtze River. Heat and humidity played a small part as riders raced at full speed against the clock, with day time temperatures around 80ºF/27ºC on a wide road with few technical turns.

Canada’s Guillaume Boivin won the opening stage, less than half a second ahead of Romania’s Serghei Tsvetcov and that much faster than New Zealand’s Morgan Smith.

The 2017 Tour of Taihu will race seven stages around Lake Taihu, west of Shanghai and home to three major metropolitan areas, including Wuxi, Huzhou and Suzhou. More than 30 million people live in and around the race course.

David Lozano:

“Today was a highway prologue – not technical, absolutely flat, and maybe four or five corners for a 5.3km stage. I’m happy to be back in China because my last time here was in 2012 and I’m really looking forward to find a stage that suits me.”

Team Novo Nordisk Sport Director Pavel Cherkasov:

“Quentin was our first rider today, and Charles rode last. Chris Williams was in the middle and showed our best time of the day, and he spent a long time in the top 10. Tomorrow the road racing begins.”

Team Novo Nordisk races all week in China at the Tour of Taihu Lake, then moves across to Japan for a pair of one-day races before finishing the 2017 season at China’s Tour of Hainan.

Results: