Kopecky storms his way to a top 5 in Turkey

In a similar run in to last year, the finish town of Marmaris played host to a bunch sprint when the Presidential Tour of Turkey finished here earlier today. Matyas Kopecky continued his impressive season with a top 5 finish on the stage.

The 21-year-old crossed the line fifth and was later promoted to fourth after the stage winner was relegated for deviation in the sprint.

General Manager, Vassili Davidenko

“Today I asked the guys to be really smart. This is a long stage race so saving energy is really important. We wanted to go into the breakaway but we didn’t want to force it to happen, spending unnecessary energy. As the climbing started early on, the stage was hard from the beginning until it eventually settled down when a breakaway went.”

“From there, the focus was to bring Andre and Matyas into a good position on the final climb which was roughly 16 kilometers to go. The climb wasn’t as long as last year and they managed to stay in the front and made it over in the first group. The boys positioned themselves quite well in the chaos of the leadouts and got another important result for us on National Children’s Day here in Turkey where we’ve been trying to inspire kids with diabetes not to give up on their dreams.”

Matyas Kopecky:

“I didn’t have super legs from the beginning but went on adrenaline in the final. We had great positioning with five kilometers to go when the guys brought me forward, then I lost some positions with 1km to go when riders were coming from behind. We tried to follow some of the World Tour teams and did a good job then a massive wave came and we were caught up in the laundry machine.”

“With 800m to go, I found a gap and took it. Within 200 meters I was in the front and with 250m to go I started to sprint. I left it all out there, it was a shame I was on the outside of the corner because maybe I could have stayed out of the wind a bit longer but I didn’t want to go on the other side of the road because I would have gotten boxed in on the inside line and that’s what happened for some sprinters. I’m so happy to get another top result for the team.”

Photo: Tour of Turkey