Davide Rebellin, now 44, isn’t exactly looking to avenge the missed opportunities he recently encountered but he’ll tackle his third straight Presidential Tour of Turkey with the aim of showing the young generation that age is just a number.

“I discovered the TUR two years ago and I realized it’s a beautiful race with the right format”, the Italian indicated. “Two uphill finishes make it challenging and sprinters have their say in between.”

In 2014, Rebellin missed the final podium because of the ten seconds he lost earlier on due to a split in the bunch on a sprinters’ day. He finished the race in fifth place overall behind Adam Yates, Rein Taaramäe, Romain Hardy and Davide Formolo. Last year, he was second to Kristjian Durasek on GC when a crash in Istanbul forced him to pull out on the very last day of racing. But he remains the winner of the queen stage to Göğübeli in Elmali.

“That was quite an emotion”, he remembered. “When I’m racing, I still give everything for winning. Even passed 40, providing that we live the life of an athlete with desire and motivation, we can keep performing.”

Rebellin lost the lead to Durasek in the final ascent of the 2015 TUR in Selçuk where Pello Bilbao took a prestigious stage victory. Those three riders are again the race favorites this year.

Prior to celebrating his 45th birthday in August this year, the star rider of Polish team CCC Sprandi Polkowice has proven to being competitive again this year. In February, he finished 9th overall in the Dubai Tour and 13th in the Tour of Oman against all the world’s top teams. He also completed the world’s longest classic Milan-San Remo in 21st place in the 31-man front group mostly made of sprinters, which is admirable.

The classic he targeted the most was the Amstel Gold Race – a race he won in 2004 – last weekend. His 80th place doesn’t reflect his state of form three days after he finished 14th at the Brabantse Pijl.

“Unfortunately I had a flat tyre in a crucial moment of the finale”, Rebellin said. “It made me lose position in the front part of the peloton where it’s necessary to be in that race. Then a crash at the bottom of a narrow climb split the bunch. It’s a pity because my form is good but I have to accept how it went in a race that is really special for me. I absolutely wanted to do well there but now I’m focused on what I have in front of me: the Presidential Tour of Turkey, which is another race I like a lot.”