Peron sprints to 11th on stage one in Greece

A windy opening stage of the inaugural South Aegean Tour saw Italian Andrea Peron win the sprint out of a chasing group just behind the late attackers to finish 11^th on the day and frustrated at missing what turned out to be the winning move. 

Team Novo Nordisk suffered an early setback with Belgian sprinter Robbe Ceurens forced out in the opening kilometers with stomach problems and crashes for David Lozano and Umberto Poli adding to the list of concerns. Fortunately, both were back up on their bikes, to finish the stage.

But it was Peron who took up the reigns on the short, but punchy run up to the line. Showing the condition that netted a top ten in Oman in February, the versatile Padovan looks to be over his recent sickness and ready to go again tomorrow for the second and final stage.

Andrea Peron

“It is quite frustrating. I had good legs and this type of finial suits me with a fast, short climb up to the finish before levelling out close to the line, but we missed the wining move and the six guys that went, attacked at the right time. We knew we should have been there, but by the time we reacted it was too late.”

“Tomorrow’s circuits could be good for us, but I haven’t seen the climb yet. We cover it five or six times, so we should get a good look at it and have an idea of how the stage will unfold. If we can stay together and be alive to the right move, we could have a chance of better result.”

Head Sports Director, Massimo Podenzana:

“There’s no doubt about it. We made a mistake today and the guys know it. Before the stage we spoke about going with the right move because in these windy conditions, with this type of uphill run to the line, once a strong attack goes it is difficult to bring back.

“All the stronger teams were there and that was our mistake, not being switched on at the right moment and we need to correct that tomorrow because we saw from how Andrea arrived at the line that he has the legs to do something here.”