Young riders gain experience on French soil

Those expecting an easy start to Tour de la Provence may have been surprised by the nature of racing on the opening day. When it looked like the peloton was happy to settle for a four-rider breakaway, the script got rewritten. The four riders out front enjoyed a maximum gap of 3 minutes until barely halfway through the stage when an acceleration in the peloton caused a split.

Team Novo Nordisk riders finished in the second peloton with David Lozano the team’s best placed finisher on the day.

“Wow it was a bit crazy with the wind and speed,” the Spaniard said. “This is the first race for me and I couldn’t go with the first group and stayed in the second group. It’s a pity we couldn’t get Matyas up there because he had good feelings to be in the first group but that’s stage racing so tomorrow we can try to be better and hopefully, we can recover well.”

20 year old Alessandro Perracchione is now in his second season with Team Novo Nordisk and no doubt gained valuable experience, along with French riders Lucas Dauge and Anton Muller who makes his official debut on the Pro Team this season. 

“We have a mix of youth and experience here at the race,” Sports Director, Massimo Podenzana said. “Back to back race days in stage racing like this allows the older guys to read the race and share knowledge with the younger ones and debrief in the evenings then have another opportunity to go again the next day so we’re looking forward to stage two.” 

Photos: Cassandra Donne Photographies