The 51st edition of the ‘Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey’, the official title of the Tour of Turkey, will take place from Sunday 26th April until Sunday 3rd May. During eight stages, the peloton will cross the beautiful  Turkish landscapes in this Europe Tour stage race. The peloton will ride along both the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. This year, the sprinters will get their chance again. But also the harder stages with finish in Elmali and Selçuk are scheduled.

German champion André Greipel is the sprinter for the Lotto Soudal team. He’ll battle against riders like Mark Cavendish, Yauheni Hutarovich and Sacha Modolo. Adam Hansen, who finished this stage race as ninth overall last year, is again the GC man of Lotto Soudal.

“With André Greipel in our team we definitely aim for a stage win," sports director Mario Aert said. "There are four sure sprint opportunities. The other riders in the team can take their chance in other stages. Thomas De Gendt showed his fighting spirit in the Flèche Wallonne, in Turkey he’ll definitely do that as well. There are stages where a break could survive till the finish.

"The third, sixth and seventh stage are important for GC, that are the tougher stages. Adam Hansen will strive for a good classification again. He already performed well a few times in the Tour of Turkey. A stage win is always a goal and Adam could do that as well next week.

“Some riders had a rest period after the spring classics, Sean De Bie and André Greipel for example. We have to wait how their legs feel on day one. We want to continue our way of working of this season so far and race aggressively. When it’s clear that it will be a bunch sprint we’ll go one hundred per cent for a victory of André, otherwise we’ll attack.”

Selection Lotto Soudal: 

Kris Boeckmans, Sean De Bie, Jasper De Buyst, Thomas De Gendt, Gert Dockx, André Greipel, Adam Hansen and Boris Vallée.