Kopecky storms into the top 5

La Route Adélie de Vitré ended up being one of Team Novo Nordisk‘s standout performances of the season so far. Matyas Kopecky topped off the hard work of the world’s first all-diabetes cycling team by earning a season’s best fifth place.

The event was raced on a circuit containing two loops. It was on the first lap that neo-pro Célestin Wattelle slipped into a breakaway of four riders. It was the young Frenchman’s first escape at this level, one where he gained valuable experience.

The race saw an aggressive last 60 kilometers. Eventually, around 20 riders made the final selection, always staying just a few seconds ahead of what was left of the peloton. The seconds were enough to stay away and it was from this group that Kopecky contested the sprint, earning his first top five finish of the season.

Matyas Kopecky:

“It was a really good day. I was feeling unbelievably good and could follow attacks and was super active. I’m really happy to have this feeling. It was one of those days where I should have done more with the legs I had but a top 5 isn’t bad. It was good to be in the final with Filippo in the front of the race and taking turns to follow attacks. Also, this was Celestin first time in the breakaway. It was just such a great team performance. I am especially happy with my shape because I was still searching for it in the last few weeks so I’m looking forward to the upcoming Region Pays de la Loire Tour and will go there with confidence. Hopefully the good legs continue.” 

Célestin Wattelle

“The race started fast with a lot of attacks. We covered everything and made sure to have one guy from the team in each group that was going. After the first lap, two guys went, then I attacked and one guy came with me and we closed the gap. We were four at the front and we had a maximum gap of 3 minutes 40 seconds.I did half of the race in the breakaway before cracking because I was cooked. I’m happy with this, it’s a new experience because it was my first real breakaway. So today I learned a lot and I see that I still need to progress to be able to do longer breakaways.”