Williams Steps Up at Tour of Hainan

24 October 2016

Race: Tour of Hainan, Stage 3

Start/Finish: Haikou / Chengmai, China

Distance: 208 kilometers

Chengmai, China —The attacks began soon after the starting gun at Monday’s stage 3 of the Tour of Hainan, and the Pro Tour teams were satisfied to let the breakaway pull away and protect their top G.C. riders inside the peloton.

“Today was a long, hot and tedious stage,” said Team Novo Nordisk Sport Director Pavel Cherkasov. “Our boys rode together until the final kilometers.”

“The finish today had a long uphill drag in the final kilometers,” said Team Novo Nordisk rider Chris Williams, “so I wanted to wait until the last possible moment before moving forward. As we went under the ‘1km to go’ banner, the race was hugging to the left side of the road. Everyone saw the right side open and swung across, but I chose to stay to the left and the road opened up. I had a relatively clean run at the line while my teammates on the right were boxed in for the sprint.”

Williams went on to finish best for Team Novo Nordisk at 14th, with the same time as stage winner, Max Walscheim (Team Giant – Alpecin), who claims the yellow jersey. Team Novo Nordisk rider Joonas Henttala hangs onto 8th in the general classification.

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing tomorrow Tour of Hainan with the 159.4-km stage 3 from Chengmai to Danzhou.