Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The Synergy Baku Cycling Project will take part in the Tour de Bretagne as its final build-up before the Tour d’Azerbaidjan. The Azerbaijani team will test itself on the windy stages of the seven-day race in northern France from April 25 to May 1.

The race sees Maksym Averin return to action. The Azerbaijani sprinter missed last weekend’s Banjaluka-Belgrade with a hand injury suffered in a training crash. Most of the stages in France are expected to end in a mass sprint, and Averin should be in the middle of the action in preparation for his upcoming homeland race. He will count on Dennis van Winden to help set him up.

The other riders in the line-up are all good for a potential breakaway. Matej Mugerli and Ioannis Tamouridis both finished fifth in Banjaluka-Belgrade, with Tamouridis being in a break group which finished more than 10 minutes ahead of the field. Alex Surutkovych and Azeri national champion Elchin Asadov complete the squad.

It won’t be an easy race, but team manager David McQuaid is confident that his team is up to the task. “As a team, we have a lot riding on this race, given the team we have entered and the point we find ourselves in the season, with the Tour d’Azerbaidjan coming up next. That makes added pressure going into a hard stage race but we have guys there who should rise to the occasion.”

Synergy Baku’s cyclists including Elchin Asadov, Maksym Averin, Matej Mugerli, Alex Surutkovych, Ioannis Tamouridis, and Dennis van Winden will take part in the Tour de Bretagne.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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