Great Start: In the United States barely a week with the Novo Nordisk team, Daragh Campbell (centre) has won two stages and the overall in his first race there
By Gerard Cromwell
Drogheda teenager Daragh Campbell made a great start to his second stint with the Novo Nordisk Development Team Stateside at the weekend when he took overall victory at the Pisgah Omnium two-day in North Carolina.
Campbell, who had his first trial with the all diabetic squad last summer, left Ireland just over a week ago to join up with the team after completing his Leaving Certificate. He will race in the USA for the remainder of the season.
On Saturday he got clear with two others in the 110km opening stage and sprinted to his first win of the season to become the first race leader of the two-day event.
The 19-year-old first year U23 then took off again on the stage 2 45-lap criterium the next day with three others and won again, taking overall victory in his first outing with the team.
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Although Campbell is still U23, the race was open to all riders bar elites.
Having struggled in the same event last year, the Drogheda youngster has since got his diabetes under control with help from the team and seems to have hit the ground running this time around.
Based at the Team Novo Nordisk house in Athens, Georgia, Campbell has now been added to the Novo Nordisk roster for a five-day stage race in Georgia next weekend.
The development squad is one step below the team’s second division continental professional team, of which Limerick man Stephen Clancy is a member.
Campbell will be hoping to continue his fine start to the season stateside in the long term aim of securing of a professional contract with the team in the future.
The team’s stated ambition is to have a team of diabetics ride the Tour de France in 2022, the 10th anniversary of the invention of diabetes changing drug insulin.
Campbell, left, is hoping to develop a long lasting relationship with the team and to keep progressing with them in the same way Limerick's Stephen Clancy has.
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