History and heroes combine as TNN return to the Tour of Hellas
13 May 2024
Team Novo Nordisk return to Greece this week to race once again at the Tour of Hellas as the heroes of the world’s first all diabetes professional cycling team looking to repeat the strong performance of their last appearance in 2022.
The opening day of racing is split, with a six-kilometer individual time trial by the coast in Thessaloniki followed by a 92.5km road stage before the race heads south for four days of intense racing through the stunning ancient country and a climatic finale in Athens.
Team captain Andrea Peron will lead the line alongside experienced Catalan climber David Lozano and returning 21-year-old Czech starlet Matyas Kopecky.
“It’s been a couple of years since our last appearance at the Tour of Hellas,” said General Manager Vassili Davidenko. “We’re very happy to be coming back to race across this beautiful country and test ourselves once again on the challenging terrain.”
“We are almost back to full strength and welcome back both Matyas and Nathan after bouts of sickness and a fractured elbow respectively and we’re coming here to get results. We know what we’re capable of and the goal is be in the mix for each opportunity in the sprint stages and try our hand in the breakaway as often as possible.”
Veteran Hungarian Peter Kusztor and Italian breakaway specialist Filippo Ridolfo will both be back in support and neo pro Nathan Smith makes a welcome return after recovering from a fractured elbow.
“I have good memories of our last time here in Greece,” said Peron. “David was strong all week and rode into the top 15 on GC and we came close in the sprint when I was second on stage tow and fourth on stage four – at least I was corresponding numerically!”
“Our objective is to go for more of the same this time around, it will be a hard race and the parcours is slightly different to 2022, but there are still chances for us and we’ll do everything we can to take them.”
Team Novo Nordisk at the Tour of Hellas, 15th – 19th May:
Matyas Kopecky (CZ, 21)
Peter Kusztor (HUN, 39)
David Lozano (ESP, 35)
Andrea Peron (IT, 35)
Filippo Ridolfo (IT, 22)
Nathan Smith (GBR, 23)
Stages:
Wednesday 15th May, Stage 1: Thessaloniki – Katerini, 92.46km
Thursday 16th May, Stage 2: Katerini – Karditsa, 169.78km
Friday 17th May, Stage 3: Karditsa – Karpenisi, 159.71km
Saturday 18th May, Stage 4: Athens – Athens, 132.54km
Sunday 19th May, Stage 5: Athens – Athens, 132.54km