Australian Declan Irvine led the way in the early break of the day at Cholet Agglo Tour in France before 21-year-old Czech sprinter Matyas Kopecky stepped on the gas on the last laps to sprint to fifth place for Team Novo Nordisk.
Sports Director Gennady Mikhaylov:
“We’re happy. Really good performance from the whole team today. First of all with Declan ticking off the early objective by getting up the road in the breakaway, he was wide awake at the start and it was important for us to be visibile out front.”
“Then of course Matyas. He had some bad luck after a great ride in Koksijde and was very determined today to get a result. He enjoyed good support from the guys until the closing circuits and then it was up to him. He didn’t let us down. You can see already this year that his positional understanding has improved and he’s starting to make the most of that.”
Matyas Kopecky:
“I felt great throughout the race today, my legs were even better than Friday and I was very focused on the target today. Chapeau to Declan, he did a good job in the break and took some pressure off us and the guys supported me really well.”
“We knew the bunch would get smaller on the last laps in Cholet and on the shorty punchy climbs I was feeling super good without any problems. We knew also that there would be attacks, but you can’t follow everything and on the last lap I was alone, so I relied on the other teams to close the gaps and unfortunately Lapeira managed to stay away and we were sprinting for podium places.”