Williams Powers to Top 10 in Tour of Taihu Lake Prologue

Race: Tour of Taihu Lake, Prologue

Start/Finish: Wuxi/Wuxi, China

Distance: 5.9 kilometers

Wuxi, China — Team Novo Nordisk’s Chris Williams earned his first professional top 10 finish in a time trial when he finished 10^th on Saturday’s Tour of Taihu Lake Prologue.

Saturday’s individual time trial was a 5.9-kilometer race against the clock through Wuxi. The flat out-and-back course featured only four turns. Oleksandr Golovash (Minsk Cycling Club) laid down the fastest time in 07:12. Williams finished nine seconds back.

“Today was my first UCI top 10 in a time trial and what is surprising is that I actually started the day aiming for a top 15,” Williams said. “I am still recovering from the virus I had in Hainan, so this was a nice way to start the race. Now we will begin stage 1 with good caravan position and hopefully that’ll help the team.”

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing at the Tour of Taihu Lake with Sunday’s 111.3-km Stage 1 that begins and ends in Wuxi.

Gallery:

Results: 

• 1^st: Oleksandr Golovash (Minsk Cycling Club): 07:12
• 2^nd: Karim Khorrami (Tabriz Petrochemical CCN Team): 0:04 behind Golovash
• 3^rd: Cameron Bayly (Attaque Team Gusto): 0:04 behind Golovash

Team Novo Nordisk Prologue Results:

• Chris Williams: 10^th: 0:09 behind Golovash
• Martijn Verschoor: 43^rd: 0:23 behind Golovash
• Gerd de Keijzer: 89^th: 0:39 behind Golovash
• Rik van IJzendoorn: 94^th: 0:40 behind Golovash
• Quentin Valognes: 99^th: 0:43 behind Golovash
• Corentin Cherhal: 126: 1:03 behind Golovash

(Photos: ©Anne Wu)