Kamstra Shines in Tour of Hainan Breakaway

25 October 2016

Race: Tour of Hainan, Stage 4

Start/Finish: Chengmai / Danzhou, China

Distance: 159.4 kilometers

Danzhou, China —Team Novo Nordisk neo-pro Brian Kamstra showed his solid potential on Tuesday’s stage 4 of the Tour of Hainan.

The 159.4-km stage was comprised of three, 6.4-km circuits and a category 4 climb at 22km to go. And after 35km of racing and several failed breakaway attempts, a group of 8 riders, which included Kamstra, managed to successfully pull away to form the day’s main break.

The 21 year-old Kamstra fought hard in the group, winning the first intermediate sprint bonus. The leaders eventually established a gap of 4:00, but as the riders approached the final climb, the peloton has reduced the advantage to just over 2:00.

Everyone was back together with 15km to go, and the Team Novo Nordisk squad worked to set up Italian rider Andrea Peron for the final sprint.

“Today, I felt pretty ok,”Peron said, “but I hit my brake twice in the last 300m, which probably cost me a couple of positions. I’m still trying hard to rediscover my confidence in the sprint, but my legs are good and I’m eager for a good result this week.”

Peron went on to finish at 14th behind stage winner Max Walscheim (Team Giant – Alpecin). And Kamstra moved to 13th overall in the general classification, one spot behind teammate Joonas Henttala.

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing tomorrow at Tour of Hainan with the 189.9-km stage 5 from Danzhou to Changjiang.