Tour of Turkey unveils 50th-anniversary route

ISTANBUL

Tour of Turkey will end in Istanbul after seven stages on coasts of the country.

The 50th edition of the Presidential Tour of Cycling, or Tour of Turkey, will be run between April 27 and May 4, as the route and calendar were announced yesterday.

The eight-stage race will span a 1,254-kilometer route, starting from the Mediterranean district of Alanya and finishing in Istanbul.

The eight-stage journey will follow the Mediterranean and Aegean Coasts on the first seven stages, from Alanya to İzmir. After transferring the teams from İzmir to Istanbul by air, the tour, dubbed “the world’s only intercontinental cycling stage race” will witness its traditional finish in Istanbul on May 4.

The stages three and six, Finike to Elmalı and Bodrum to Selçuk, will be the two climbing stages in the tour.

Last year, Turkey’s Mustafa Sayar won the Tour, but then was stripped of his title after testing positive for banned substances. Eritrean rider Natnael Berhane was declared the winner of the 2013 edition of the tour.