Tinkoff-Saxo will send an eight-man team to the upcoming Tour of Turkey from April 26 to May 3. The UCI 2.HC event, won by Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) last year, will include two uphill finishes, and Tinkoff-Saxo aims to be in the mix.

Nicki Sorensen will direct the team of Jay MacCarthy, Pavel Brutt, Daniele Bennati, Michael Kolar, Nikolay Trusov, Edward Beltran, Evgeny Petrov and Juraj Sagan.

"We will arrive with a prospect of being competitive although we don’t, on paper, have the biggest favourites on the roster, neither in the GC nor in the sprinter’s stages," Sorensen said. "But still, we have a team with a pretty good width. I believe we can get in the mix on the flat stages and in the GC with Jay McCarthy and Pavel Brutt.

"It’s an exciting route, it has a bit of everything except time trials and you don’t necessarily have to be a pure climber to do well in the GC. It’s a good mix and I believe that, depending on the race shape of McCarthy and Brutt, they can do well. We will take it day by day and we also have a team of pretty fast guys in the likes of Michael Kolar, Nikolay Trusov and Daniele Bennati. I expect them to be there in the fast finales on the flat stages."