Uneventful opening day for TNN in Tour of Taihu Lake

The opening stage of the Tour of Taihu Lake came down to a fast bunch sprint. With the stage consisting of three short laps and a 5 kilometer straight flat, it was always going to be a fast strong finish.

Even though it was part of the plan, Team Novo Nordisk was unable to contest the sprint upfront as Hamish Beadle explains.

“The team plan was to look for the break, and ultimately sprint for me. The stage was pretty fast with a lot of breaks that went but none were successful,” Beadle explained.

“The ⁠⁠final was super sketchy, with everyone being so fresh, everyone wanted to sprint. We tried to stay calm and stay out of the mess, but it was eventual that we would end up in it. I lost Umberto’s wheel and ended up trying to move through the bunch but I was too far back for the final few hundred metres to go anywhere. So not the best, but we have a few more days to get it right,” Beadle continued.

“Tomorrow and the next days will be similar, fast flat courses with short circuits or point to point. Ranging from 80km to 115km.”

With a total distance of only 76 kilometers, stage 2 from Nantong – Qidong is expected to be another fast one.