Lozano digs deep on last stage in Greece

Spanish climber David Lozano went deep on the mountainous final stage of the International Tour of Hellas to finish in the top 20 and climb up to 13th overall.

A great week of racing saw a fantastic team performance from Team Novo Nordisk that included a second and fourth place for Italian sprinter Andrea Peron, veteran climber Peter Kusztor turning into a late-career lead-out man and the final performance of Lozano wrapping the race up nicely.

David Lozano:

“It was a really hard day today, I know always say that about the Queen stage but all you have to do is look at the profile today to see how hard it was. We were straight onto the climb again and it split almost immediately. There were a four or five guys ahead of us in the breakaway but I made I it into the favorites group and stayed there.”

“I rode my own tempo even when the attacks came and felt pretty good even though weather started to play a part too, the organizers neutralized the race on the long descent and we had maybe half an hours wait before we got going again and then it was full gas.”

“We caught the break at the front and all was going well until I had a mechanical and then a bike change and had to chase for 5 or 6km to make it back in, but I made it just before the finish. That energy took away any chance of a higher finish, but we’ve still had a great week and the moral has been great here.”

Sports Director Gennady Mikhaylov:

“Really good effort from David today and I’m pleased to see him come through such a tough stage like this with a good result and he even moved up to eight places on GC. He wasn’t looking forward to the stage, but he put that to bed as soon as we started and rode very well.”

“All the guys did a good job this week. We showed great teamwork and positivity every stage and the way we kept pushing for a result after Andrea’s second place on stage two was great to see.”