David McQuaid: The main goal of Synergy Baku cycling team is to bring Azeri cycling up to Olympic standards
Baku, April 17 (AZERTAC). “The main goal of Synergy Baku Cycling team is to bring Azeri cycling up to Olympic standards,” technical director of Synergy Baku David McQuaid said.
“Our main goal for this team is to develop Azeri cycling, starting with the country’s best riders. We aim to qualify starters in road and track events for the Rio Olympic Games. In doing so, perhaps, inspire a new generation of cyclists. The UCI Asia Tour has been growing in stature and strength for many years now, there are many Asian UCI teams, it is a very competitive Tour, plus races like Langkawi, Taiwan, they attract World Tour teams so our results in these Tours have been whilst pitted against the very best squads in the world. We have 16 riders in our squad, each rider bringing a specific talent or strength to the team. For example, Anuar and Rico would be our key sprinters, Kirill one of our riders for General Classification in Stages Races. The guys have some raw talent, it just needs to be nurtured or forced out of them through hard, hard training. Post the Australian training period, Jeremy got a good idea of where these guys are. He feels he can bring two guys to Olympic standard. Tour d’Azerbaidjan will put together a very strong but well balanced field. But we also have proven ourselves in stage races to date this year, and for Azerbaijan we bring what we know now as being our strongest team. Every single one of the other 144 starters, not just the UCI teams, but National Teams like Australia etc. Since February, most of our race participation has been in Asia, on the UCI Asia Tour there. Post Azerbaijan, we all move towards Europe, competing for the summer at UCI races in countries like UK, Ireland, Latvia, Estonia, and Austria. We will set up a base for our squad in either Austria or Spain,” he added.
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