For Skil-Shimano, the Tour of Turkey is a must have

The Dutch team will have three goals in Turkey: to win a stage, to score points for the Europe Tour and set the standards for their young riders.

The Skil-Shimano team will represent the Netherlands, a great cycling nation, at the coming Presidential Tour of Turkey from April 11 to 18. “We’re delighted to discover this race”, team manager Marloes Poelmann explained. “All the directeurs sportifs testify it’s a very professionally organised cycling event. Every year it becomes better. It has become a very important race and soon it will be a must have for every team. For us it’s ideal because the course is dense with two mountain stages, the climate is perfect and the riders will encounter great working conditions.”

At the same time, Skil-Shimano will also take part in the classics: Paris-Roubaix on April 11 and the Amstel Gold Race on April 18. They have assigned a specific role to each rider selected for the Tour of Turkey. “Kenny van Hummel will try and win a stage with a bunch sprint finish”, Poelmann described. “David Deroo and Job Vissers will help him out for that. Albert Timmer is our specialist for long distance breakaways. Our Norwegian recruit Frederik Willmann who is a good climber will go for the overall classification. We have a mission for the three remaining riders we line up: to give a chance to Asian cyclists. Thanks to Skil-Shimano, two Chinese and one Japanese will be on the start line of Istanbul for the first time.” Yukihiro Doi from Japan has been a Skil-Shimano rider since 2006. He has collected valuable results in his country and now he tries to catch the highest level of professional cycling in Europe. “He has learnt a lot for the past two years”, Poelmann said. “He put his hands up for riding the Tour of Turkey and experiencing the nice weather. He has big ambitions for this race. One of the two Chinese, Han Feng, is on his second year with. He has made the effort to adjust his lifestyle to the European one. He’s been living in the Netherlands since January with his fiancé. He learns English and has a pretty good understanding of bike racing. His compatriot Cheng Ji is very young, only 22, but his situation is different. He lives in China, trains there alone and yet has to learn the basics of cycling. This is a team sport. He’s got talent. It’s up to him to show at the races what he’s really worth as a rider.”

“This is actually the case for all of our riders”, Poelmann concluded. “We develop young riders. In a race like the Tour of Turkey, they kind of take an exam. We’ll start without any designated leader but through the week, they’ll have to behave like adults and tell the directeur sportif Merijn Zeeman what they are up to and they’ll have to accept to work for one of them. This experience will make them better riders, I’m sure.”