TNN tackles the final stage race in Tour of Taihu Lake

Team Novo Nordisk heads to China for its penultimate race of the season. The Tour of Taihu Lake will be the world’s first all diabetes cycling team’s final stage race of the season and another opportunity to share what’s possible with diabetes.

The team will line up with a versatile roster, a mix between experience and youth. Most notably, Team Novo Nordisk Devo rider Anton Muller will join the pro team for the race as a trainee.

“We’re looking forward to the next five days of racing at the Tour of Taihu Lake,” said Sports Director Gennady Mikhaylov. “We know the race well from last year and our goal is to improve on our previous results.”

“Both Umberto and Declan were consistently among the top 20 riders and we’d like to be in the top 10 this time around and we’ll be looking to David and Hamish to lead. It’s going to be a good experience for our French stagiaire Anton Muller and we’ll be looking attentively to see how he performs alongside the pro’s.”

Quinten De Graeve and Umberto Poli will be familiar with the roads having raced their last year. Poli has raced once in China this year already and will be looking to emulate his top 10 finish in the final stage of Tour of Hainan.

The team as always can rely on the experience of David Lozano and Sam Brand while Hamish Beadle on a couple of occasions has proven this year that he has a knack for fast finishes.

“The race has a little something for everyone so we will take each day as it comes,” Lozano said. “We have some guys who can mix it up in the sprints and we always stick together as a team protecting them which will be important in this peloton. We’ve talked amongst each other and we want to finish the season really well going into winter.”

Team Novo Nordisk at Tour of Taihu Lake, Tuesday 9-13 October:

Hamish Beadle (NZ, 26)
Sam Brand (GBR, 33)
Quinten De Graeve (BEL, 23)
David Lozano (ESP, 35)
Anton Muller (FRA, 26)
Umberto Poli (IT, 28)

Stages:

Wednesday, October 9th, Stage 1: Wuxi – Wuxi, 103 km
Thursday, October 10th, Stage 2: Nantong – Qidong, 76 km
Friday, October 11th, Stage 3: Wujiang – Wujiang, 116 km
Saturday, October 12th, Stage 4: Changxing – Huzhou, 117 km
Sunday, October 13th, Stage 5: Nanjing – Jiangning, 114 km