Smith makes the break on Queen stage in Belgium

British neo pro Nathan Smith found his breakaway legs once again for Team Novo Nordisk making the move of the day on the Queen stage of the Baloise Belgium Tour.

After a period of recovery following a fractured elbow the 23-year-old achieved his goal of getting out front for the worlds first all diabetes professional cycling team, even if he did choose the hardest stage of the race to do it!

“It feels good to get up the road again,” said Smith. “I’m not quite back to the level I had before the crash, but being out front in a good group working together is always a nice sensation and I’m proud to be able show off our jersey in a race like the Belgium Tour.”

“We wanted to get in the break since the second day and it turned out that the Queen stage ended up being the easiest day to make the right move. It wasn’t planned this way. I was close to the front and saw three guys attack and I thought why not…then on the first climb some more WorldTour riders bridged across and that gave us more momentum”

Smith played his part well alongside the leaders for close to 100km before the repeated punishing ascents of the Mur de Durbuy took their toll and he dropped back to join his teammates in the bunch.

“I would have liked to have hung on there until the last lap,” concluded Smith. “But I was already suffering on the climbs, dropping and then making it back in on the downhills and as we got deeper into the race the group split and four of us lost contact. We’re looking forward to a nice finale in Brussels tomorrow and then some recovery.”

Photo credits: Sprint Cycling Agency