Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The Synergy Baku Cycling Project will start the 2016 season with a 14-rider squad which includes eight national riders and a total of seven U-23 riders.

Eighteen-years-old Kanan Gahramanli and Tarlan Mammadov of Azerbaijan will join the team, and Aqshin Ismayilov is leaving. Ukrainian Alex Surutkovych has re-signed for an additional year.

Sprinter Maksym Averin will continue to lead the team, with an eye towards the second half of the season. The national riders hope to be selected for the Rio Olympics and the World Championships, and will also be aiming for a top finish at the new European Elite Championships scheduled for mid-September.

“Maksym needs an easy build up after a highly stressful 14 months which we hope result in Olympic qualification,” said sport director Jeremy Hunt. “He will ride long stage races to build him up slowly towards Azerbaijan’s main goals.”

Of the eight national riders, only Averin and Asadov are over 23 years old. The remaining six are all eligible for U-23 races.

Having just turned 21, Samir Jabrayilov already has three years experience with the team, having joined it as an 18-year-old in the team’s debut year of 2013. He is also the only of the “youngsters” who can claim a professional win, as he won a stage at the Jelejah Malaysia in 2013. Samir and newcomer Josip Rumac will ride both Elite and U-23 races.

Gahramanli is the reigning national junior road race and junior time trial champion. Both he and Mammadov rode the Worlds and European road races in 2015.

“We will look after the new young riders in the best possible way so that they can gain experience and skills and mature, like Samir has over the past three years,” said Sport Director Jeremy Hunt.

Sport Director Andrej Hauptman will work mainly with the younger riders. “Our goal is to ride as many National Cup races with our U23 riders as we can. That way we will be in touch with the best in the world. Another goal is also to improve our results in European and World Championships.”

Surutkovych, who won the mountain jersey at this year’s Tour d’Azerbaidjan, will be back with the team for a third year.

The team’s management remains unchanged, with Team Manager David McQuaid, Head Sport Director Jeremy Hunt, Sport Director Tomaz Poljanec and Sport Director Andrej Hauptman.

Synergy Baku Cycling Project for 2016 inludes Elgun Alizada, Elchin Asadov, Enver Asanov, Maksym Averin, Kanan Gahramanli, Ismail Iliasov, Samir Jabrayilov, Matija Kvasina, Tarlan Mammadov, Matej Mugerli, Kirill Pozdnyakov, Josip Rumac, Alex Surutkovych, and Ioannis Tamouridis

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

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