Team Novo Nordisk Ignites UAE Tour With Two in the Breakaway

25 February 2019

Race: UAE Tour, Stage 2

Start/Finish: Yas Mall/Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Distance: 194 kilometers

Abu Dhabi, UAE —Team Novo Nordisk’s Charles Planet and Sam Brand both featured in the day’s main breakaway while teammate Andrea Peron sprinted to a top 20 finish at the seven-day WorldTour UAE Tour.

The 194-kilometer race saw Team Novo Nordisk riders line up at the front of the peloton from the start. Once the race reached Kilometer 0, Brand attacked with a Gazprom-Rusvel rider. Quickly Planet bridged up and rounded out the break to four complete with another Gazprom rider. They earned a maximum gap of 11:50.

Part way through the stage, strong crosswinds hit the peloton causing it to splinter into echelons. A 25-man group broke off the front and fought their way up to the four-man break, but immediately Planet and Kuriyanov attacked again and created a two-man break.

The duo rebuilt a gap of more than 5:20 and Planet took top honors through the second intermediate sprint. They were caught with 13 km to go. In the sprint finish, Peron, Peter Kusztor and Declan Irvine worked well together and positioned the Italian for the high-paced finish. He finished in the same time as stage winner Fernando Gaviria (UAE-Team Emirates).

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing at the UAE Tour on Tuesday with Stage 3. The first of two mountain stages is a 179-kilometer race that beings at UAE University and features two intermediate sprints before a summit finish up Jebel Hafeet. Another squad is currently racing at the Tour du Rwanda.

Sam Brand:

“It was great having Charles with me in the break; it is nice knowing I had someone there who had my back. Normally you have to judge everyone in the group and today I only had to think about the other two riders.”

Charles Planet:

“It was really nice for me to have a teammate because normally in a breakaway, all the other guys around you aren’t your friends. You might be riding together, but at the end, the best guy needs to be up there. It was nice having Sam with me today because it meant I had a friend up there.”