Tour of Turkey, a first for Cofidis

The 2010 season is an unusual one for Cofidis. Kicked out of the UCI Pro Tour because of its poor ranking at the end of last year, the team based in the north of France has no choice but modify its traditional race program. Sidelined by the organisation of the Tour of the Basque country, they decided to gear up for the Ardennes classics at the Presidential Tour of Turkey (April 11-18). It will be the first participation of a French team at the Turkish event. Cofidis challenge for 2010 is to demonstrate that they have the level to compete in the biggest races. They want to win the individual and team classifications of the UCI Europe Tour for which the Tour of Turkey is one of the highest ranked events in the hors-category.

“The season is far from over but at the moment we have the two best riders of the Europe Tour with Samuel Dumoulin and Jens Keukeleire”, explained directeur sportif Francis Vanlondersele. “We’re leading the team classification and we already have ten wins. We want to take the opportunity of scoring a maximum of points at the Tour of Turkey.”

Cofidis will line up its crème de la crème in Istanbul on April 11. It looks like their Tour de France team for this year with the king of the mountain of the past two Tours of Spain David Moncoutié, recent stage winner and king of the mountains of Paris-Nice Amaël Moinard, up and coming Estonian Rein Taaramae who made the top 10 at Paris-Nice this year at the age of 23 only, his compatriot Kalle Kriit who is a also good climber, the revelation of the 2009 season Julien El Farès, Rémi Pauriol who is one the best French riders, the specialist of long breakaways Christophe Kern and the fast Colombian Leonardo Duque.

“This team will use the mountainous course of the Tour of Turkey to do a good job”, Vanlondersele acknowledged. “The distance of the stages is interesting. The climate is good. I believe we’ll come out of this race in a good condition whereas we had to cope with the cold and the rain at the Tour of the Basque country in the previous years. My colleagues have spoken highly of the organisation of the Tour of Turkey. We’re delighted to give it a go.”

In Turkey, Cofidis will have the double goal of getting ready for the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège but also to take profit of the difficult stages of Pammukale and Fethiye to secure a high position on GC. This is something new that will make the Presidential Tour of Turkey more challenging this year. “There will probably be some bunch sprints as well and I know that Duque isn’t as fast and powerful as Andre Greipel (HTC-Columbia) or Daniele Bennati (Liquigas-Doimo) but if there is a tricky finale for which positioning plays a major role, I think he can beat the favourites for a stage win”, Vanlondersele mentioned. “Our other riders are mainly climbers but we won’t designate any team leader. That will be decided along the way. In Istanbul, it will be widely open!”

The Cofidis team for the Presidential Tour of Turkey: David Moncoutié (Fra), Leonardo Duque (Col), Julien El Fares (Fra), Christophe Kern (Fra), Kalle Kriit (Est), Amaël Moinard (Fra), Remi Pauriol (Fra), Rein Taaramae (Est)

2010-04-18

Fifth stage win for Greipel, first stage race overall win for Visconti

Giovanni Visconti will bring back the first “Turquoise maillot” to Italy as the colour of the leader’s jersey has changed from yellow to the mythical colour of Turkish birthstone this year. This is the first stage race overall win for the 27 year old but the 46th Presidential Tour of Turkey will also be remembered for the five stage wins of the great German sprinter Andre Greipel from the world’s best team HTC-Columbia who scored again in the town of Alanya at the end of the eight days “Tur”.

Other Articles

2010-04-17 – Viviani takes first pro win in hectic finale
2010-04-16 – Greipel scores again, Visconti congratulates Turkey
2010-04-15 – One more stage for Andre Greipel, Visconti keeps the lead comfortably
2010-04-14 – Visconti wins the battle with Cofidis and takes the command
2010-04-13 – Visconti wins stage 3, Taaramäe moves into the lead
2010-04-12 – Greipel remains unbeaten after stage 2
2010-04-11 – Greipel grabs first career’s prologue
2010-04-09 – Eurosport TV Schedule
2010-04-08 – Amaël Moinard Heads To Turkey For Winning
2010-04-06 – World’s Best Lead Out Man Back on Track For Turkish Debut
2010-04-02 – Lampre Sends Young Guns To Forget Last Year’s Bad Luck
2010-03-31 – Colnago-CSF Introduces Sprinting Prodigy
2010-03-30 – CCC-Polsat Set Tour of Turkey as Their First Real Target
2010-03-29 – Liquigas Sends Young Guns in Turkey
2010-03-25 – The Tour is a Tool for the Promotion of Turkey
2010-03-24 – ISD-Neri with Visconti and Cipollini as a guest star!
2010-03-23 – For Skil-Shimano, the Tour of Turkey is a must have
2010-03-22 – Footon-Servetto: a young team for a re-start
2010-03-20 – Tour of Turkey, a first for Cofidis
2010-03-18 – Andre Greipel Discovers Tour Of Turkey
2010-03-15 – Presidential Tour of Turkey Becomes Bigger

2010-04-15

Team soul

We are hosting important names, managers, hundreds of employees of cycling world in the organization of the 46th Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey which we gave start with the prologue stage in İstanbul on April 11. While we are witnessing the struggle of popular atheletes of the world from one stage to another everyday, we are beginning to the day with security forces, employees of highways, race course supplies teams who prepares the roads that the convoy will pass and advance groups that are welcoming them by preparing racing areas at finish zones.

2010-04-06

Feyzi Acikalin

TUR is Not Only A Cycling Race

One of the primary task of the state is to ensure its citizens the right of doing sports and competition. Simply thinking, a bicycle race enters into this context. But, if you organize the mother of the races, it is different…