Kusztor soars into top 20 on stage three in Rwanda

Veteran climber Peter Kusztor rode strongly on today’s third stage of the Tour du Rwanda with the 37-year-old former Hungarian champion claiming the third top 20 of this year’s race for Team Novo Nordisk.

Sports director, Gennady Mikhaylov:

“It was a very good ride from Peter and the guys today on what was clearly the hardest and longest stage of the race so far and he’s been quietly impressive over the last three days. The chase really intensified over the last 60km and it was very pleasing to see the guys working together again.”

“It was unfortunate to lose Lucas to a crash during the stage, we hope he recovers quickly and is back on the bike soon. Aside from that we’ve had three good days in a row and with another tough day coming up tomorrow we need to produce more of the same.”

Peter Kusztor:

“Very tough stage today and I really enjoyed it because I wasn’t sure what to expect from myself on the first real test of the race, in terms of distance and the climbs, but it went well and I’m happy with a top 20.”

“It was slow in the beginning because with a long day ahead at 200km no one wanted to chase the breakaway early on, and they had a gap of around 12 minutes at one point. But things settled down and as Total Energies started to pick up the pace we caught the lead group at the start of the last climb.

“I managed to stay in the main group until right towards the end and I felt good all day, had good legs and tried to race intelligently to conserve energy and the boys really helped me so thank you to them.”