Long windy day takes its toll on stage six in Turkey

The second 200km stage of this year’s Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey witnessed the wind toy with the bunch again before a challenging technical and lumpy finale proved too much to contend with after another long day in the saddle under the Turkish sun.

Peter Kusztor:

“The whole day was hard really. At the start we tried to get into the breakaway and then the climb came which was around 10km and I found that hard and could feel the initial efforts.”

“After the climb we tried to go in the breakaway again. Taking it in turns to have a go, but that wasn’t easy because the race was already split into two or three groups on the climb and the bunch was coming back together into a headwind. It was tough.

“Then after all our efforts the break finally went without us. The wind wreaked havoc again and there were different points with echelons, and it was particularly difficult going over the bridge. But we did our best to keep Andrea in a good position and it came back together for the final, which was technical, undulating and in the end too tough after 200km and we finished in the bunch.”

General manager Vassili Davidenko:

“We tried repeatedly to get someone up the road in the breakaway today, but it was a challenge. The stage was already a long, tough one and then you factor in the strong wind, and it becomes a whole new level of difficulty.”

“Even considering the tough conditions we did a good job as a team today and showed a lot of team spirit. The guys tried their best to keep Andrea in the first group every time a split formed, but the finish was just a bit too much today and after the great work the guys put in for yesterday’s top ten there were some tired legs out there.”