Valognes Finishes Outside Top 10 on Tour de Taiwan Finale

30 March 2017

Race: Tour de Taiwan, Stage 5

Start/Finish: Pingtung/ Pingtung, Taiwan

Distance: 198.8 kilometers

Pingtung, Taiwan — Thursday’s final stage of the Tour de Taiwan was the longest day of the race at 198.8-kilometers. The relatively flat stage took the peloton along the coast before three finishing circuits around Pingtung.

Team Novo Nordisk actively covered all the attacks from the start. Initially, Brian Kamstra was in an eight-man breakaway that got reeled in and then Rik van IJzendoorn featured in a seven-man breakaway that stayed clear for 70 km. Once the race came back together, the focus for the finish was to put sprinter Quentin Valognes in strong position for the bunch sprint. Brenton Jones (Team JLT Condor) won the bunch sprint with Valognes finishing outside the top 10 in 13^th position. Benjamin Prades (Team UKYO) took the overall race win.

Team Novo Nordisk Sport Director Pavel Cherkasov:

“Our tactic was not to let any major breaks go without one of our riders and then to place Quentin well in anticipation of a field sprint. We are still growing, but one major detail I noticed was how much better they got at communicating with one another throughout the race. Chris Williams did a great job all race long serving as the road captain.”

Team Novo Nordisk Stephen Clancy:

“It was a long, hot day in the saddle but it went quite well. We were active in the beginning with Chris, Brian, Rik and myself covering the moves and Rik’s got away for most of the stage. That allowed the rest of us to focus on getting Quentin across the line where he finished in 13^th. It was good teamwork and now for the long travel back to Europe.”

The world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team returns to racing on Friday in Europe with the one-day French race, Route Adélie de Vitré.

Results: