Tour of Denmark looms large for Team Novo Nordisk

11 August 2023

The worlds first all diabetes professional cycling team go into the 32nd edition of Postnord Danmark Rundt with an eye on the breakaway and opportunities in the sprint stages as Team Novo Nordisk prepare to race on adopted home soil.

“Every year we look forward to the Tour of Denmark immensely,” said General Manager Vassili Davidenko. “It’s effectively our home race with it being the home of our key sponsor Novo Nordisk and technical partner Argon 18 and with their invaluable support this race is always a very special event.”

Fresh from his first WorldTour top ten at the recent Tour de Pologne 20-year-old Czech starlet Matyas Kopecky lines io alongside team captain Andrea Peron looking for repeat success in the sprint and to continue The development of a fruitful partnership.

“We come in after a successful week of racing against WorldTour competition at the Tour de Pologne,” continued Davidenko. “And the goal is to bring that form into Denmark. With Andrea and Matyas we have two versatile sprinters who have demonstrated that they can work well together in the finals, so we’re looking to work as a team and show what it means for us to be here lining up at the Postnord Danmark Rundt once again.”

Veteran Hungarian Peter Kusztor is enjoying a consistent twilight to his career and with the young Italian Filippo Ridolfo in fine form throughout 2023, TNN have options for the punchier stages.

“It’s good to be part of a versatile and balanced team,” said Peron. “We’ve shown in most races this year that we can mix it up on different terrain and achieve our objectives and with Filippo coming so close to victory in GP Kranj last month we feel like we’re getting closer to where we want to be.”

“There’s a strong mix of youth and experience to the squad and for me personally, the Tour of Denmark is always a highlight on our calendar. It’s important that we show what we can do in the home of our sponsors Novo Nordisk and Argon 18 and I’m looking forward to getting out there again and showing what’s possible with diabetes and what’s possible with our incredible support.”

Belgian neo pro Quinten de Graeve makes his second appearance for the senior pro team after riding strongly at the Sazka Tour in July alongside kiwi Hamish Beadle and Australian all rounder Declan Irvine completes the team.

Five days and 730 kilometers of technical and challenging racing begins way up in north in Aalborg before taking a right turn south to Kjellerup and on to beautiful Viejle to make the jump across the Great Belt to Kalundborg and then down to an individual time trial finale in Helsingør.

Team Novo Nordisk at Tour of Denmark, 15^th – 19th August:

Hamish Beadle (NZL, 26)

Quinten de Graeve (BEL, 23)

Declan Irvine (AUS, 24)

Peter Kusztor (HUN, 38)

Matyas Kopecky (CZ, 20)

Andrea Peron (IT, 34)

Filippo Ridolfo (IT, 21)

Stages:

Tuesday 15^th August, Stage 1: Aalborg – Aalborg, 169.9km

Wednesday 16^th August, Stage 2: Kjellerup – Silkeborg, 163.6km

Thursday 17^th August, Stage 3: Vejen – Vejle, 209km