Presidential Tour of Turkey In Photos

The race was not without controversy though. Mustafa Sayar’s biggest career victory came about on stage 6 where he rode away from the peloton on the final 6km ascent to Selçuk to seize the overall lead.

Marcel Kittel took to Twitter to express his disappointment after stage 6:

I was not often in my life so angry about a result of someone else. And I see many people around me feeling the same. #TourofTurkey

— Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel) April 26, 2013

Why is Sayar’s win clouded with suspicion? Well, contrary to Colombian Nairo Quintana’s (Movistar) rise to winning the Vuelta al Pais Vasco (watch the NBC commentator’s remarks about him coming out of nowhere), Sayar has not shown the same promising rise in the background. To his credit, he’s still only 24 and perhaps he’s just coming into his own. He’s won the Tour Of Isparta, came second at the Tour d’Algérie (2013), second at the Tour de Blida (2013) and second at the Tour Of Victory (2010) (all smaller UCI 2.2 races. Tour of Turkey is a UCI 2.HC, on par with Tour of California - read about UCI race classification codes).

Question marks arise when Sayar’s teammate, Ivailo Gabrovski, tested positive for EPO in the 2012 Tour of Turkey after riding clear of the field on Stage 3 and taking the overall win. Fairly or not, it’s Gabrovski’s association to Sayar’s team which casts a shadow.

If you want to read more about this, Alex Hinds (CyclingCentral) has a good piece on it here.

Regardless of the controversy, you can see the beauty of the Presidential Tour of Turkey brought to you by Kei Tsuji. Enjoy.

You can view all stage results and highlight videos of the 2013 Presidential Tour of Turkey here.

: Adam Hansen’s custom made carbon shoes, just 105 grams.

: A local boy giving away strawberries from his farm.

: Omega and Saxo use Paris-Roubaix 25mm tyres for the rough roads.

: Marcel Kittel took three sprint stages of this year’s Tour of Turkey but Andre Greipel took the overall sprint classification.

: Junya Sano (Vini Fantini) gives me a wave while in a break in stage 2.

: The peloton strung out in a flat stage 2 from Alanya and back to Alanya.

: The peloton on stage 2 in Alanya.

: Stage 2 of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey was a flat run that began in Alanya and ended in the projected bunch sprint in Antalya. The finale was marred by a massive crash inside the final kilometre. Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEDGE) emerged from the mayhem to deliver his first win of the season.

: Aidis Kruopis (Lithuania) congratulated by his GreenEDGE teammates. Besides winning a stage in the Tour of Belgium in 2011, this could be considered his biggest win to date.

: Aussies Rory Sutherland and Cam Meyer. Both of them had a very good race with Sutherland coming in 10th overall and Meyer 6th overall.

: African champion Natnael Berhane (EUC) proved Eritrean cycling had come of age when he gave his country its most significant victory to date in the queen stage of the Tour of Turkey above Elmali on Tuesday. The 22-year-old Asmara-born climber outclassed the rest of the field on the final climb to Gugubeli to earn his first major pro victory, the first of such caliber by an Eritrean cyclist outside the African continent.

: Andrey Kashechkin’s (Astana) custom 200mm stem.

: Cameron Meyer having a vegemite sandwich?

: André Greipel goes on to win stage 5 the day after he won stage 4. He won overall points classification with those two stage wins.

: It wasn’t only the riders who had punctures during the race.

: Mustafa Sayar riding to the win on stage 6 which secured him the overall victory of the 2013 Presidential Tour of Turkey.

: CCC Polsat Polkowice, a UCI Pro-Continental team based in Poland. Formerly CCC Mat which have been around since 2000.

: Michael Hepburn (Orica-GreenEDGE) doing the hard yards off the back on his way to losing more than 3 minutes on stage 7. He came in 156th overall.

: The peloton strung out along the coast of the Aegean Sea.

: Michael Hepburn descending on stage 7.

: After stage 7 the peloton packed up and flew from Izmir to Istanbul where the race finished

: Sayar’s winning bike.

: The Bosphorus Bridge which connects Europe to Asia.

: Adam Hansen on Bosphorus Bridge.

: Markus Eichler, Team Netapp - Endura.

Jonty Paulsen

Superb pictures.
MadBlack

I’ll say it again here:

I think give Sayar the benefit of the doubt rather than the Spanish inquisition! His wattages are within reason as pointed out in the article. Also looking at the results that day there weren’t any world renown climbers within the top 20. I mean it’d be different if he’d pulled 30 seconds on Contador or Froome but he didn’t. Without trying to
belittle anyone, the only guys up there were Meyer @ 30s and Feilleu and Sunderland @ 43s. In my opinion that’s totally plausible.

Besides once more are we seeing the power of the MULLET! I shall refer to him from now on as Mustafa “the Mullet” Sayar.

Fantastic photographs - Thanks!
Pureflo

Awesome. Truly spectacular coverage.

Cam Meyer proves again that he’s growing in stature and talent - not suggesting he’s not talented already. And to top it off, I’m more impressed with his Vegemite sandwich consumption during the race.

Also, had to have a little chuckle on the 12th last image with the little boy lining up next to the pro’s. He looks more serious to start the the rest of the bunch.
- Johnson
  
  Nutella I reckon. That’s too thick for it to be Vegemite!
  - Der Kaiser
    
    Cam Meyer’s soft just having a bit in a sandwich, he needs to do a Jan Ullrich and microwave the jar and eat the whole thing (true story).
- Johnson
  
  Nutella I reckon. That’s too thick for it to be Vegemite!
JM

Loved Adam Hansen’s little black carbon kungfu slippers. I wonder if they come in fluoro.
- Croc fan
  
  Yep he’s nuttier than a Snickers sometimes, but we love him!
Nickv

Kashechkin’s stem is a great example of how stupid it is that there’s little room for custom geometry with carbon frames.
Just like ever other punter he can choose a longer stem or seatpost but has to fit himself into the S, M, L, XL frame options, it’s absurd.
Paolo

Al Hinds articles seem always very uninformed if not plain wrong. I mean he considered Wiggins a non-European Tour winner.He jumps on the band wagon re Sayar and throws in Ullrich and Indurain, which both looked sooooo much smoother than Sayar. There’s no evidence or confession from Indurain re doping anyway.
- Huh
  
  Wiggins is a non European winner, the UK is not Europe. Smoothness means you’re a doper? Damien Gaudin will never be questioned then
TT

Could someone provide me with an image of a Torku bike? I cannot find it on the Internet anywhere.
- http://www.facebook.com/Kaan.Eryurek Kaan Eryürek
  
  Salcano
Kaan Eryürek

Great pictures.
In addition, We all believe Mustafa Sayar. Just wait 2 mouths for speak about SAYAR.
binotto

Great images!
Abdu

Sayar’s result is dodgier than a two day old kebab.

Indurain never confessing is a cultural thing, if you think he wasn’t dripping with EPO then you must love Easter and Christmas, the Easter Bunny and Santa are real right…?
- JM
  
  It doesnt help his cause that he seems to be sporting a Floyd ginger beard.