Baku to welcome truly international peloton at Tour d'Azerbaidjan-2016
By Laman Ismayilova
The traditional cycling race Tour d’Azerbaidjan will welcome at least 22 teams from around the world this year. The line-up so far features six Professional Continental teams, 15 Continental teams and one national team.
The UCI 2.1 five-day Tour d’Azerbaidjan stage race will start on
May 4 in Baku and finish on May 8.
The Professional Continental rank will be represented by BORA-Argon
18 Pro Cycling Team (Germany), DRAPAC Professional Cycling
(Australia), Team Roth (Switzerland), Gazprom RusVelo (Russia),
Team Novo Nordisk (USA) and Southeast Pro Cycling Team (Italy).
Synergy Baku Cycling Project, racing on home soil, is one of the 15
Continental teams. Others are Team Sauerland (Germany), Bridgestone
Anchor Cycling Team (Japan), Team Tavira (Portugal), Felbeymayr
Simplon Wels (Austria), Astana City (Kazakhstan), Dukla Panska
Bystrica (Slovakia), Tusnad (Romania), Nasr Dubai (United Arab
Emirates), Team Illuminate (USA), Massi-Kuwait Cycling Project
(Kuwait), Unieuro Wilier (Italy), Terengganu Cycling Team
(Malaysia), Cycling Academy Team (Israel) and Alpha Baltic -
Maratoni.lv (Latvia).
As well as the Pro Continental teams and Continental teams, the
Estonian national team will also line up at the 2016 Tour
d'Azerbaidjan.
Farhad Aliyev, General Secretary of the Azerbaijan Cycling Federation said: “We're glad to welcome a truly international peloton at this year's Tour d'Azerbaidjan. With two more Pro Continental teams in comparison with last year, as well as teams from four different continents across the globe, we expect even more spectacle on the Azerbaijani roads.”
The tour brought together 24 teams from around the world in 2015, which competed in a five stage race covering the entire Azerbaijan. The total distance covered by riders was 870 kilometers.
The 2015 race saw Primož Roglič (SLO) win the general classification and Marko Kump (SLO), Primož Roglič (SLO), Joshua Edmondson (GBR), Daniel Turek (CZE) and Sergey Firsanov (RUS) take the stage wins.
Tour d’Azerbaidjan -2016 will be the fifth edition of the event, which started in 2012 as the Heydar Aliyev Anniversary Tour (U23) and in 2012 - the tour became an annual event, later transformed into Tour d'Azerbaidjan.
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