TNN Opens Tirreno-Adriatico With Team Time Trial

08 March 2017

Race: Tirreno Adriatico

Start/Finish: Lido di Camaiore/Lido di Camaiore

Distance: 22.7km

Lido di Camaiore, Italy — Team Novo Nordisk began a week-long World Tour race on Wednesday, racing along Italy’s western seacoast in the opening stage of the 52nd edition of Tirreno-Adriatico. Under sunny skies and with a favoring wind on the return leg, eight riders from the world’s first all-diabetic professional cycling team set out on the 22.7km course.

To compete in the specialist discipline of the team trial the squad prepared ahead of the race on their Colnago K-Zero framesets, and equipped themselves with rear disc wheels from Ursus, aerodynamic helmets from Catlike and technical handlebars and extensions from Full Speed Ahead.

With an optimal start time at 15:00 CET, the riders rolled out onto the flat, out and back course with full international television coverage in front of thousands of cycling fans, and came home to the finish all together save one rider who experienced a no-fault flat tire in the final kilometers of racing.

Stage winners and two-time world champions BMC Racing Team won the 22.7km stage in 23:20. Team Novo Nordisk finished 2:52 off the pace with an average speed of 51.985kph.

GM Vassili Davidenko

“The guys did well today, and this was their first time trial of 2017. The turns were nice and smooth, and they finished together save for Romain’s flat tire. The teamwork was strong, and for the first outing of the season we see the growth in our experience and improvement in the time trial discipline. We have a hard week ahead of us, and the team is ready for a good showing at Tirreno Adriatico.”

Fabio Calabria

“We worked well together, and the time trial was good. We’re looking to be aggressive in the race, and to make sure people know we are here, to look for the opportunities as they come and race our bikes as best we can. We’ll see how the race unfolds every day and try to sneak into the breakaways and do what we can.”

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing all week at the 52nd Tirreno-Adriatico, with hard stages in the Italian mountains and unpredictable spring weather ahead. The final stage next Tuesday is an individual time trial on Italy’s eastern coast along the Adriatic Sea.