After a 5th stage canceled due to complicated weather conditions on Thursday, the Turkey Tour Taken up this Friday with a beautiful 6th stage, around the city of Selçuk, and a new arrival at the top, in Ana Meryem (4.2 km at 8.4 %). As during the queen stage two days ago, the team Ds Astana made the double, but in an inverted order: this time, it is Harold Martin Lopez who lifted his arms in front Wout Poels After going out in a strong one kilometer from the summit. The Dutchman nevertheless retains the leader jersey, with 16 “margin on his teammate Ecuadorian. The winner of Tour de Greece At the beginning of April won his first success on an online stage and returned to this great performance with Jean-François Quénet.
VIDEO – The summary of the new double of XDS Astana this Friday
“Good for the confidence of the whole team and for our manager Alexandr Vinokurov”
“First of all, I am very happy because it is my first professional victory, at least by crossing the finish line first, but it is in fact my second after winning the general classification at the turn of Hellas a month ago. After my fall in Australia in January, I worked very hard to come back in good shape. Cycling is a very difficult sport and we don’t win often. The work of my teammates has been incredible today, especially on the flat parts of the course. At the start of the stage, we only controlled the race as leaders in the general classification. Many runners wanted to escape. We applied ourselves before the last two climbs to position myself well and I felt very well at that time.
Wout Poels and I checked the attacks by Picnic. We were careful not to fall into the last descent. In the final climb, I tried to attack to arrive alone on the line. We did a training camp at altitude on the Teide volcano before coming to Türkiye. Today’s victory is the consequence of this intensive training that we have carried out. It’s good for the confidence of the whole team and for our manager Alexandr Vinokurov. This is the second time that I have come to Türkiye, last year I had finished fifth as general and now I am second, I hope that I will win next year! I like to run here, sometimes the roads are a little slippery but it is part of cycling, Turkey is a very good country and I hope to be able to eat very well on the last day in Izmir.”
“It’s special for me to ride with Wout Poels, I learn a lot of him”
“The most important thing now is to remain first and second in the general classification with Wout Poels and myself. The last two stages do not have long climbs, only 3rd cate. If it is possible to also keep the red climber red jersey, we will try, but the general classification is our priority.
Wout is a very good runner, who has a lot of professional victories, great towers and experience to his credit. It’s special for me to ride with him. During the Teide training camp, we talked a lot about this race, my career and my next goals together, so I learn a lot about him. He won the Reine stage two days ago and today I won, we take advantage of this happy moment with the team. The Turkey Tour is a good preparation for the Italia Giro, but as I have already run a lot after getting back from my fall in Australia, my next race will be the tour of Hungary, after which I will go home in Ecuador, which makes me very happy too. I will participate in the Vuelta at the end of the season, but I think Wout will be in great shape at the Giro of Italia after having run here.”
