Team Novo Nordisk look ahead to racing at second home Tour of Denmark

12 August 2022

Team Novo Nordisk have been building up to next week’s 31^st edition of Postnord Danmark Rundt/Tour of Denmark for some time as the world’s first all diabetes professional cycling team return to race on ‘home roads’ and proudly carry the inspirational message of Driving Change in Diabetes at one of the seasons key objectives.

GP Kranj winner Andrea Peron is set to lead a strong line up with talented neo pro Matyas Kopecky and experienced Spanish climber David Lozano in support.

“The Tour of Denmark is a huge race for us,” said General Manager Vassili Davidenko. “It is the home of our principal sponsor Novo Nordisk, and we have a large fan base there so it will be very important for us to race on the front foot and try to take every opportunity to support Andrea in the sprint stages.”

“We can’t wait to get racing on Danish roads again, last week competing against WorldTour teams at the Tour de Pologne has set us up nicely for what will be another very challenging event and condition-wise we are in a good place. The stages are very long here apart from the ITT, and in particular Thursdays Queen stage at 239km is going to be extremely difficult. But we’re ready!”

Former Hungarian champion Peter Kusztor and Kiwi Hamish Beadle return alongside Italian first year professional Filippo Ridolfo and 23-year-old Aussie Declan Irvine completing the team at a race he ‘lit up’ in 2021 with a run of strong performances.

“We’re at the business end of the season,” began Peron. “Sure, it was nice to finally get a win at GP Kranj a few weeks ago, but then the toughness of seven days racing at the Tour de Pologne reminded us how hard you have to work to achieve something at this level and the Tour of Denmark will be no different – in fact, one or two stages maybe even harder!”

“I think it’s fair to say that we have additional motivation to do well in Denmark due to it being the home of Novo Nordisk, but it doesn’t manifest itself as pressure. The pressure is always on at the highest level and forus the most important thing is that we are inspiring and educating the diabetes community in every race we do. Novo Nordisk gives us the platform to be able to do that and racing well on home ground is just one way we can show our appreciation.”

2022 brings changes to the ‘traditional’ route, but the challenges remain the same with Wednesday’s second stage individual time trial sandwiched between two 200km plus stages before the final two days of racing take us North and into Jutland for the finale in beautiful Vejle.