TNN Kicks off Tour of Taihu Lake with Prologue ITT

07 October 2018

Race: 2018 Tour of Taihu Lake, Prologue

Location: Wuxi / Wuxi, China

Distance: 5.3 kilometers

WUXI, CHN – Sam Brand posted the top time for Team Novo Nordisk on Sunday in the opening stage at the Tour of Taihu Lake.

Brand finished Sunday’s 5.3km individual time trial in 6:36 to start the week-long stage race around Taihu Lake just west of Shanghai. The world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team is in China this week for its second of three planned Autumn stage races in Asia.

New Zealand’s Dylan Kennett won the prologue on a warm day in Wuxi. Brand finished around half a minute down on the race leader ahead of Monday’s 85km sprint stage along the northern shore of Taihu Lake. The 2018 Tour of Taihu Lake will feature seven complete road stages from Monday, finishing next week at the Wuzhou hot spring resort on the southern lake shore.

Sam Brand:

“The prologue was hard, fast-paced, but not too technical, so it was easy to put the power down. I’m happy with the result, and the team’s happy. We’re looking forward to tomorrow. We’ve got another fast, flat stage, probably with a sprint finish, 85km around the lake. The team’s really motivated to go, so we’ll give it everything and hope for a really good week.”