Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

Matej Mugerli will lead the Synergy Baku Cycling Project at the Istrian Spring Trophy in Croatia this week. Mugerli, fresh off the win in the Porec Trophy, will look to take the team’s second overall win in this four-day race.

The race opens with a two-km prologue in Umag. The climbing starts in the first stage, 158 km from Porec to Labin, and continues on stage 2 from Vrsar to Motovun. Stage 3, from Pazin to Umag, isn’t much easier.

Last weekend, Mugerli won the mountainous Porec Trophy, attacking near the end out of a break group. In Istrian, he will again be supported by Ioannis Tamouridis, Maksym Averin and Matija Kvasina.

Azerbaijani rider Samir Jabrayilov joins the squad, and Kirill Pozdnyakov will make his 2016 season debut, rejoining the team after a two-year absence.

“The Istrian Spring Trophy is a race of seconds,” explained DS Andrej Hauptman. “First we must do a good prologue. The finishes in Pazin and Motovun will decide the race.”

“There are a lot of super riders in this race, like our friend Markus Eibegger who won with us last year. But we are in good form and we are ready to fight for the victory.”

Synergy Baku Cycling Project for Istrian Spring Trophy: Maksym Averin, Samir Jabrayilov, Matija Kvasina, Matej Mugerli, Kirill Pozdnyakov and Ioannis Tamouridis.

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