Press conference on “Tour d'Azerbaidjan” held at Kempinski Hotel Badamdar
Baku, May 6 (AZERTAC). The Kempinski Hotel Badamdar has today hosted a press conference on the “Tour d'Azerbaidjan” to be held from May 7-11.
With the race opener less than 24 hours away, riders, officials and race organizers have all expressed their satisfaction with preparations and their eagerness for the action to start.
As in the previous two years, the course is a challenging one, with stages for every kind of rider. The race opens with 154 kilometers from Baku to Sumgayit, and a bunch sprint is expected. The second stage features the first climbs of the race, and stage three has an uphill finish.
That sets things up for the fourth stage, which should prove to be the most exciting. It is a short stage, but boasts of a 22km long ascent to the finish line atop the Hors Category-ranked climb of Pirqilu Tedris Merkezi.
The race ends with the longest stage, starting and ending in Baku. The 202 kilometers include six laps of a 13.6 km circuit course in downtown Baku. This stage is the test event for the road race in the 2015 European games.
“I am sure you will all witness a great sporting spectacle in the next few days here in Azerbaijan,” said the head of the organization committee and Vice-President of the Cycling Federation of Azerbaijan Sahib Alakbarov. While he hopes for good results from the Azerbaijani riders, he also took the long-term view.
“You can't plan to win. Our objective is always to represent Azerbaijani sport at the highest level. Synergy Baku Cycling Project, although a young team, already has significant achievements. We do have very good cyclists on the team and we are hopeful that they will represent Azerbaijan successfully.”
Two Azerbaijani riders are tackling the race, Elchin Asadov and Samir Jabrayilov, both with Synergy Baku Cycling project. “It is our home race and that makes me very motivated to show good performance, not only for myself, but for all Azerbaijani riders who hope to stand on podium one day,” Asadov said.
Race director Albrecht Roder pointed out that “We have a very good field of riders, a few come directly from Tour of Turkey. We have 150 riders from 25 teams, teams from all over the world. The riders come from 33 nations - quite a lot - a big surprise for me was that the most riders, 15 in all, come from Australia.”
“We are very proud to have the winners from the 2012 and 2013 races here again this year. Last year's winner, Serhiy Grechin (Torku Sekersport), also has Juan Jose Cobo on his team, and that could be a very strong team.”
Grechin said that Cobo will in fact be leading the team this year. Grechin is not so sure of his own chances. “I am not in the best condition right now unfortunately, because two months ago I crashed and broke my hand. I had to have surgery and didn’t train as much as I wanted.”
“My last race was the Tour of Turkey, which finished two days ago. But I will do my best and see what I can give. We have Cobo as our leader and we will work as best as possible for him.”
Roder also pointed to MTN-Qhubeka as a team to keep an eye on. It features not only Youcef Reguigui, who won the race in 2012 when it was called the Heydar Aliyev Anniversary Race, but also former Tour de France leader Linus Gerdemann.
“We arrived yesterday and we did a nice little training today through Baku and are now relaxing before it starts tomorrow. Everything seems really good, I am impressed by the city and the organization, and it seems like a great race,” Gerdemann said.
“We are aiming for a good spot for me in GC. The fourth stage looks quite hard and because the teams have only six riders, it will be not easy to control and will be a nervous and open race.”
Fans around the world can watch the race as well. Eurosport will offer half hour highlights every day and present live coverage of the final stage on Sunday, May 11.
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