Kopecky breaks out of the traps to take 5th on stage four in Greece

Budding classics specialist Matyas Kopecky broke free of the frustration of the first few stages today at the Tour of Hellas, sprinting into fifth place for Team Novo Nordisk after a strong lead out by captain Andrea Peron.

“The first two stages didn’t go how we wanted them to,” began Kopecky. “But we believe in ourselves and knew we would get back in the top results if we stuck to the plan, and everyone did a great job today. Real teamwork and Andrea executed a perfect lead out for me at the end, so good that he almost went top ten himself.”

After some early splits in the peloton over the days only climbs, things finally settled down as the race headed south and a small breakaway group was allowed a slender lead over the bunch. A regrouping came with 10km to go and despite a couple of late attacks the sprint was on. 

“The approach was super fast,” continued Kopecky. “There was a short descent to the last kilometer and we carried a lot of speed into the sprint, we were flying. For the first time since I came back from illness my legs felt really good, almost back to normal and with one more stage to go we desperately want to get on the podium. I’m not satisfied with fifth place and we’ll do our best to nail it tomorrow.”