Poli powers into top ten in Taiwan

It’s been coming for a while and it’s not been for want of trying and on stage three of the Tour de Taiwan Italian puncheur Umberto Poli got his chance in the sprint for Team Novo Nordisk and duly delivered a top ten, crossing the line in ninth.

Head sports director Massimo Podenzana:

“I’m happy for Umberto, he’s been asking for an opportunity in the sprints for a while now and today he got it, and he did well, but now it’s important that he pushes on from here.”

“It was a double-edged sword for us today because we did well on the stage, but unfortunately Filippo didn’t feel great and lost some time on the climb and slipped back on the general classification. We’ll adapt our objectives accordingly and look to try and move David up on the last two stages.”

Umberto Poli:

“The race split a couple of times over the climbs and myself, David and Sam made it into the front group of around 60 guys and I felt good and wanted to go for the sprint, so I’m happy I got a chance to do that. To be honest ninth is ok, but I think I could even have done a little better, so that’s something to aim for.”

“We’ve been working hard every day here and we started this race in a really good way, lots of positive energy in the team and we will give our all over the last two stages to get the best result possible.”