Peron sprints to a top 10 in Turkey opener

The opening stage of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey culminated in a fast finish with Andrea Peron contesting the bunch sprint. The 36-year-old continued his fine race form from Ronde van Limburg two weeks ago, where he placed 12th by finishing tenth today.

Filippo Ridolfo formed part of the day’s early escape, giving Team Novo Nordisk great visibility throughout the day. The team’s objective was to send someone on the attack and contest the sprint, and both were achieved.  

“The plan was to go to Matyas today, but he has been suffering from illness so if he didn’t feel good then I needed to go for the sprint,” Peron said. 

“I lost position before the last corner because I didn’t want to risk a crash as is very likely in my experience, so after that I needed to make up positions to get back to the front. It’s great to know the legs are still there but at my age now it’s weighing up risks, which I try to limit. Let’s see what we get in the next few days.”

Ridolfo explained that while Peron and Matyas Kopecky were protected riders, it was up to the rest of the team to force a move early in the stage. “The breakthrough formed quite early on with one of the first attacks of the day. That was not too hard. I tried to take seconds in the intermediate sprints but I messed it up unforutnately and got fourth in them but that’s racing. Then I kept rolling and was one of two guys to be caught with 15km to go. A breakaway and top 10 is a great way for us to start this race so it all worked out.“

Stage 2 will see the first bit of climbing introduced to the race from Kemer to Kalkan over 167.4km.