Ridolfo rides high in the break on stage 5 in Oman

Four chances, five taken for Team Novo Nordisk at the Tour of Oman as the world’s first all diabetes professional cycling team get back to basics and focus on Driving Change in Diabetes from the front as Italian neo-pro Filippo Ridolfo became the latest TNN rider to animate the breakaway on the wide middle eastern roads.

Filippo Ridolfo:

“I had a bad day yesterday, so let’s say that I wanted to redeem myself! It is a really good feeling to have been able to be part of the breakaway here in Oman at my first race as a neo-pro, but it was not easy.  After Jan did it on the first day, I’ve been waiting for my chance to have a go and we’ve managed to play a part in the break on all but one of the stages which is great.”

“We had a good idea how the stage would unfold, and we had a plan to get in the break from the start. Knowing that it would go early, and that the peloton wouldn’t give us much space, and they didn’t. It was exciting though, to be up there showing the jersey and I can feel the winter training starting to pay off.”

Sport director Gennady Mikhaylov:

“Fantastic work by Filippo getting in the break today, that’s four out of five opportunities we’ve taken and it’s already a vast improvement on last season. Filippo was hungry to shoe himself after Jan’s exploits on stage one and today with the Green Mountain climb coming right at the end was a perfect scenario to get in the early move.”

“Once again, we told the guys that they needed to be switched on at the start, because we knew that the break would go straight from the flag drop as the GC teams would want to bring the race back together before the climb. It was a short window of opportunity and I’m very pleased that we made the most of it.”

“It was a hard final climb and once they’d been caught, Filippo tried to hang on with Charles and Umberto for as long as he could before Charles showed yet again signs that he’s on his way back with another good effort up to the finish and another top 40.”