Greipel grabs first career’s prologue

The 46th edition of the Presidential Tour of Turkey started on a high note in Istanbul. For the first time, the race had an inaugural time trial and the winner was Andre Greipel. The German is therefore once again the world’s most successful rider. He’s the only one with seven wins under his belt this year.

He created kind of a surprise when he scored the best time in the 5.8km prologue (8.40). He bettered by six seconds the fastest time previously set by his team-mate from HTC-Columbia Tejay van Garderen. “It was windy alongside the Bosphorus but that was the same for all the riders”, Greipel explained. “I saved some energy for the climb.” The cobblestones ascent to the historical centre of Sultanhamet led the riders to the finish in front of Haghya Sophia. Greipel the sprinter was obviously inspired by this magic finale.

“For me, Turkey meant holidays”, he said. “I went to the beach in Bilek before but it’s my first time racing in this country. I came with the ambition of winning a stage but I didn’t expect it would happen today. Sometimes I do good prologues, sometimes bad ones. I decided to give it all to this one. It came from a bet this morning with my room-mate Bert Grabsch. As he’s been the world champion for time trial and he’s still the German champion, I told him I’d do a better time than him but I didn’t really believe what I said. I’m happy with the team’s result today.”

HTC-Columbia scored a prestigious 1-2 with Van Garderen keeping the second best time over Polish champion Maciej Bodnar from Liquigas-Doimo. Estonian champion Rein Taaramae also disturbed the party as he claimed the fourth position but the American outfit eventually placed five riders in the top 10 with Czech time trial champion Frantisek Rabon in 5th, Belgian hope Jan Ghyselinck in 6th and Grabsch in 9th.

“To have the best team in the world winning here means there is a great week of racing ahead”, noted UCI president Pat McQuaid who paid a visit to Istanbul on his way to Dubai for the Asian cycling championships next week.

Stage 2 will take the 111 participants of the Presidential Tour of Turkey from Kusadasi to Turgutreis, which is a new finishing line on the map of the event just outside the touristic destination of Bodrum. It’s expected to end up with a bunch gallop with Greipel being a hot favourite.

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…