Team Novo Nordisk come through crash marred stage two in Rhodes

Sports Director Gennady Mikhaylov:

“It was a hectic stage today, really quite wild on the descents, lots of crashes and the wind and repeated attacks made it a difficult race to get to grips with. We tried to keep everyone together for as long as possible, but the bunch split going onto the first big climb of the day and from there we had to adapt.”

“Charles, Declan and Sam Brand were up there in the front group until it split completely and from there, we had Charles and Sam again working with each other to try and stay in contact with the leaders, but it wasn’t to be. Tomorrow’s our last chance to get a result, so we’ll put everything into that and see how we go.”

Charles Planet:

“Super tough day in the saddle today. It’s a cliché, but man it was hard. Again, lots of wind and early attacks, but today also lots of crashes on the descents and guys taking a lot of risks.”

“I was feeling ok for most of the stage, bit it was a lot of climbing and I started to struggle on the last big climb and started to lose contact with the front group, even then I thought I could make it back in on the descent, but I got held up behind a couple of crashes and the wind hit us when we tried to come back on the flat.”

“It’s not what we wanted out of today, we lost some time so a good result on GC is out now and the only thing we can do is try to recover and get something out of tomorrow’s final stage.”