Team Novo Nordisk set for Greek epic over three weeks of racing in March
08 March 2022
The world’s first all diabetes professional cycling team head south for a block of early races and a mini training camp on the Greek Islands that will take in the Tour of South Aegean, the Rhodes GP and International Rhodes Tour.
First up and new to the UCI calendar is the two-day Tour of South Aegean which, like the Rhodes GP and Rhodes Tour takes place in the ancient Greek Island, but follows different, yet still challenging routes around the coast and inland.
“We love coming back to race on Rhodes,” said General Manager Vassili Davidenko. “And with the addition of the brand-new Tour of South Aegean we decided that it would be a good idea to use the time here not only to race, but also train on the nice Island roads and in what will hopefully be good weather.”
“It’s going to be close to three weeks that we’ll be there, and so we will split the rosters for each race and that will give some of the guys who have had less racing so far in 2022 a good opportunity to show themselves and try to take their chance while also getting some solid training in as a group. We know what the racing is like here, it’s fast and it’s competitive and we need to be ready for some aggressive racing from the start.”
Italian sprinter Andrea Peron comes in after starting the season well with a top ten at the Tour of Oman and Spanish climber David Lozano and former Hungarian champion Peter Kusztor both lining up after the recent Tour of Rwanda.
Italians Umberto Poli and neo-pro Filippo Ridolfo line up alongside Peron with 20-year-old Belgian sprinter Robbe Ceurens completing the team for the first race.
“It was great racing in Rwanda again and I needed a hard race like that to start my season with,” said Lozano. “After a long winter of training at home in Spain, Rwanda gave me that racing rhythm that my body was missing and the extra condition that comes with racing at altitude and I’m looking forward to racing on Rhodes.”
“I haven’t raced in Greece before and it’s always exciting to compete somewhere new, on roads you don’t know, and every race has a different atmosphere. But it’s going to be hard, I’ve heard form the boys that these races are fast and aggressive, so we need to be prepared and ready to fight for results.”
The Tour of South Aegean is split over two days of racing and covers 340 kilometers over difficult, undulating terrain taking in breathtaking coastal roads and picturesque villages like Kosikinou and Salakos.
Team Novo Nordisk at the Tour of South Aegean, 12th & 13th March:
Sam Brand (GBR, 31)
Robbe Ceurens (BEL, 20)
David Lozano (ESP, 36)
Andrea Peron (IT, 33)
Umberto Poli (IT, 25)
Filippo Ridolfo (IT, 20)
Stages:
Saturday, 12th March – Stage 1: Kosikinou – Kosikinou, 172.1km
Sunday, 13th March – Stage 2: Rhodes – Salakos, 168.8km