The 2010 Tour of Turkey is launched

Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey,the Europe Tour hors-category race, have been launched their event in a ceremony of the highest quality in Istanbul.

The Presidential Tour of Turkey leads the list of up and coming races newly organised on the cycling planet. The event keeps growing. For the first time, it’s going to be a hors-category race of the Europe Tour from April 11 to 18. On Thursday morning, the 2010 edition has been launched on the occasion of a spectacular ceremony held in the prestigious Ciragan Palace in Istanbul. The enrolment of big teams and the attractive new course have been celebrated with great pomp and efficiency.

Four Pro Tour teams, ten Pro Continental teams and the Turkish national team will compose a field of 120 cyclists who will line up alongside the banks of the Bosphorus and up to the prestigious touristic site of Sultanhamet for a 5.8km individual time trial. It will give birth to a first hierarchy of the contenders for the overall classification.

Among these teams, HTC-Columbia, Liquigas and Cofidis are the three world’s most successful teams so far in 2010. HTC-Columbia will feature German sprinter Andre Greipel who is currently the most successful cyclist with six wins since the opening of the 2010 season.

Alike in 2008 and 2009, the participants of the Tour of Turkey will leave Istanbul after the first day of racing and fly to Izmir towards the beauties of the Mediterranean. For one week, cyclists, spectators and TV viewers will again enjoy watching the turquoise blue of the sea and the great coastal landscapes.

It will be a different race than in the past two years though. The inaugural time trial is a first, so are the two mountain stages en route to Pamukkale and Fethiye. The riders will climb up to 1600 meters. Therefore, climbers are expected to succeed Spain’s David Garcia Dapena and South Africa’s Daryl Impey who won the Presidential Tour of Turkey in 2008 and 2009 successively.

The Tour of Turkey whose generic title is “TUR”, like Vuelta and Giro mean “Tour” in Spanish and Italian, now enjoys a good reputation that attracts great teams and champions. Despite the competition of an overloaded cycling calendar in April, it’s a perfect preparation for the Giro d’Italia. Some of the world’s best cyclists will line up in Amsterdam in May as well as in Istanbul in April. Top sprinter Greipel is one of them. Cofidis will feature David Moncoutié, recent stage winner at Paris-Nice Amaël Moinard and Rein Taaramae who came third in the Tour of Catalunya last week, with the preparation of the Flèche wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in mind.

The Tour of Turkey is organised by the Turkish cycling federation whose president Emin Müftüoğlu and director Abdurrahman Açikalin are delighted to showcase Turkey to the world and promote cycling in Turkey at the same time.

THE STAGES OF THE PRESIDENTIAL TOUR OF TURKEY

April 11: stage 1, Istanbul-Istanbul ITT (5.8 km)

April 12: stage 2: Kusadasi-Bodrum (181 km)

April 13: stage 3: Bodrum-Marmaris (166 km)

April 14: stage 4: Marmaris-Pamukkale (209 km)

April 15: stage 5: Denizli-Fethiye (221 km)

April 16: stage 6: Fethiye-Finike (194 km)

April 17: stage 7: Finike-Antalya (114.5 km)

April 18: stage 8: Antalya-Alanya (166 km)

click for more photo

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…