Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The 59th Tour of Slovakia is underway in Slovakia on June 10-14.

Maksym Averin, the member of Synergy Baku Cycling Project, finished second in the bunch sprint which closed out the first stage of the Tour.

Matej Mugerli closed the stage behind him in fourth place. Ioannis Tamouridis topped off the great team perfomance by finishing 11th. Those three placings were enough to give the Synergy Baku Cycling Project the lead in the team rankings.

The other three Synergy Baku riders also finished in the same time as the winner. Averin goes into the second stage third overall and Mugerli ninth.

The peloton stayed together for much of the 181 kilometres between Sahy and Telgart. Several breaks formed during the stage, but none was able to really get away, and the stage ended in the expected bunch sprint.

“It was a fast stage,” said DS Jeremy Hunt. “The guys rode well all day and in the end they did a good lead-out for Max.”

“This was a good start to the Slovakia Tour, we are a strong team and again we keep proving that,” said team manager David McQuaid. “It looks good for the days to come in this race."

Both Averin and Mugerli are using the race as preparation for the road race in the Baku European Games, as are Ioannis Tamouridis, Elchin Asadov and Samir Jabrayilov, and all have shown themselves to be highly motivated.

"All the guys here will compete in the European Games next week,with the exception of Markus Eibegger, who would have also have been there if not for his injury,” McQuaid said. “With the Tour d'Azerbaidjan just over, it can be hard to focus on another season goal so quickly but credit to all, the job is taken very seriously and our BCP guys should be good there in front of Europe.”

Synergy Baku Cycling Project for Tour of Slovakia inludes Elchin Asadov, Maksym Averin, Markus Eibegger, Samir Jabrayilov, Matej Mugerli and Ioannis Tamouridis

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

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