Heavy fog neutralizes early part of tough queen stage in Greece

After an early neutralization due to heavy fog atop the first climb of todays queen stage at the Tour of Hellas, the racing gradually got back underway with Italian rouleur Filippo Rodolfo active in the first breakaway attempts for Team Novo Nordisk.

The 22-year-old from Udine was not to have his day today however, with three riders eventually going clear and subsequent attacks splitting the field on the approach to the Hors Categorie final climb to Velouchi, close to 2,000m above sea level.

“We knew it was going to be a tough stage,” said Ridolfo. “The first climb was a cat 1 and came a few kilometers out of the neutral zone and I tried hard to get a move going immediately. But the conditions were not ideal and as soon as we started to climb heavy fog descended and the race was stopped.”

“The organizers did a great job neutralizing the race for our safety as the visibility was extremely low, but it was shame to miss the break. We came here for the breaks and the sprint stages, so we tried to conserve as much energy as possible and survive throughout the rest of the stage. We made it and we’ll be all in tomorrow for Andrea and Matyas.”