Cross winds, crashes and another fast finale on stage two in Turkey

Another sprint stage unfolded on stage two of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, with a shorter 156km of racing and lots of strong wind to contend with over the closing kilometers. Team Novo Nordisk rallied around Italian sprinter Andrea Peron with the Padovan just outside the top ten in twelfth and hungry for more.

Hamish Beadle:

“Our early objective was to get in the breakaway today, but it didn’t happen so my role was to stick with Andrea and try to help him out at the end but it quite messy today with the cross winds and the last hour was really hard. I think we did ok, but we can do better, and we’re focused on making sure we do that in the days to come.”

Andrea Peron:

“The result was ok, but it could have been a lot better today. It was so windy with a few crashes again and I found it quite stressful avoiding all the carnage. The speed was insane at times today, you’d get held up by a crash, lose contact, chase back on and all at close to 60kph.”

“It was a crazy kind of day, and the final was at warp speed again, but we came a lot closer today and the guys tried their best to help me out with Hamish alongside me right into the last kilometer. We go again tomorrow, and it looks to be a flatter stage and another chance to try and break the top ten at the finish in Izmir.”

General Manager Vassili Davidenko:

“It was a lumpy stage again today but played out as we expected for another sprinters stage with breakaway going away pretty-easily and then Lotto and BikeExchange controlling the bunch with everyone thinking about the final sprint. Our initial plan was two pronged, we wanted to get in the breakaway, show ourselves and be visible before working for Andrea at the end.”

“We missed the breakaway, so we shifted our focus solely on to Andrea and we did much better today, with Hamish working hard and staying up there alongside Andrea until the very end and we were only just outside the top ten. Getting closer!”