SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team make it through very cold character building day at Korean tour

The SUBWAY® Pro Cycling made it through very cold conditions and remains focused on bringing home the sprinters jersey being worn by Paul Odlin. 

With only two stages of the 10 day tour left SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Odlin leads Nakajima Yasuharu from the Asian Racing Team by two points in the race for the tour’s best sprinter. 

Today’s 192 kilometre stage seven had three mountain climbs and there were no sprint points on offer. SUBWAY® Pro Cycling rider Westley Gough said it got colder the higher and longer the stage went.   

“It was seven degrees and there was heavy rain at the start but none of us were expecting it to get colder, but it dropped down to one degree going over the last mountain pass. The whole peloton was just shivering from start to finish today,” he said. 

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling Manager Graeme Miller said it was a very tough day for all the boys on a day with a lot of casualties. 

“We just did our best to limit our losses – it was an extremely cold two hundred kilometres,” he said. 

“We have some mild hypothermia on what really was an epic character building day.” 

Miller said SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Matt Gorter did not complete today’s stage so the team is down to four riders for tomorrows 145 kilometre stage eight from Yangyang to Chuncheon. 

The tour ends with a 47 kilometre circuit in Seoul on Sunday with sprint points of offer after 27 kilometres of racing.  

Miller says the clear focus is to position Paul to win enough points on Sunday for the team to bring home the tour’s sprint jersey.

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling aim to bring Korean tour sprint jersey home

A successful day at the Tour de Korea saw SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Paul Odlin pull on the blue jersey of the tour leader’s sprint ace, and the team’s focus now is to bring it home. 

Odlin on the podium with the sprint leaders jersey

After four days of racing Odlin was second going into today’s stage five, just one point off sprint leader Nakajima Yasuharu from the Asian Racing Team. 

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s General Manager Hayden Godfrey said the team rode “very well and helped put Paul in the best position possible to pick up the points he needed.” 

“The stage had one major categorised climb of four kilometres which was at the halfway point. It was really important the entire team got over it to support Oddy (Odlin) in the days sprint prime that came after 112 kilometres.” 

Godfrey said SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Sam Horgan and Nick Lovegrove were required to work hard on the front in the lead up to the sprint prime to pull back a breakaway group that had formed after the climb. 

“It was a great effort from Sam (Horgan) and Nick (Lovegrove) to bring back the break, then Wes (Gough) gave Paul (Odlin) a long lead out to ensure he was in a perfect position. The sprint was tough as it was uphill and into a headwind. Paul rode very strongly and took second place which was enough to put him in the sprint jersey; the day’s goal was complete”. 

Odlin gets to wear the sprint leader’s jersey for the rest of the tour that ends on Sunday as there are no more sprint points up for grabs until the finish line in Seoul on Sunday. He holds a two point lead over Yasuharu (Asian Racing Team). 

“Our clear goal now is to bring the sprint jersey home to New Zealand,” Godfrey said.

BREAKING NEWS – SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Odlin takes sprint jersey at Tour de Korea

Paul Odlin from the SUBWAY® Pro Cycling Team has taken the lead in the sprint classification at the Tour de Korea with 20 kilometres left on stage five. 

Odlin takes sprinters jersey in Korean Tour this afternoon

After four days of racing Odlin was second, just one point off the leader Nakajima Yasuharu from the Asian Racing Team in the sprint competition. 

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Manager Graeme Miller said this afternoon the team was working very well and had taken valuable points on today’s 148 kilometre stage. 

Complete update to come.