Dauge leads TNN home on mountainous Turkish stage

Stage 6 of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey was the longest of the race at nearly 200 kilometers. It was also another mountaintop finish to make a long day even harder.

General Manager, Vassili Davidenko:

“With all the climbing and another mountaintop finish, today was all about getting through the stage without any issues. We had two crashes but fortunately not too serious. Lucas could test himself up the mountain and was the first guy home from the team. We have two stages left, tomorrow has some more climbing but the last one is just over 20 kilometers from the finish. You can see the peloton is starting to get tired but our job is to keep believing we can finish the race well.”

Lucas Dauge:

“It was a long day, almost 200km with a hard finish. The guys did a great job and we stayed together during the race. I crashed 30km to go just before the climbing started then I tried to keep my own pace but it was too late to get a better result. I’m a bit disappointed because I felt good and I’m sorry for the guys because they did a great job. After the crash, I didn’t want to take too many risks on the descent between the two climbs which I think was a good decision after seeing so many crashes after that.”