The road cycling season is winding down, with the last monument having taken place at the weekend, but there’s life in the World Tour for the rest of October; A godsend to cycling addicts and a chance for those not so into the sport to take a look at how races are outside of the Grand Tours. The Tour of Turkey – very much a promotional advert for the country – takes place from tomorrow to the end of this week, and whilst some will scratch their head when looking at the start list, there are four World Tour teams present and contenders for the overall will be known. Here’s a guide to the likely contenders to take the overall, along with one familiar name who might just go under the radar.
Diego Ulissi
Will strongly fancy his chances of ending his season on a high. The Italian has had a fine end of season after a Tour in service of others. 11th in Quebec, he then took victory at the Grand Prix de Montreal and he has carried that form back to Italy where he was seventh at the Giro dell'Emilia and fourth in the Tre Valli Varesine before a creditable finish with the bunch at Il Lombardia. His classics style nature means that the tricky finishes through the week shouldn’t bother him and the Italian is likely to be a strong favourite.
Darwin Atapuma
Team UAE Emirates have a double handful with Atapuma waiting in the wings as well. Since finishing 20th in the Vuelta overall, he hasn’t picked up as many strong results as his team-mate, but the parcours of the week suits him very well and it’s likely he’ll be used as a tactical option by team director Bruno Vicino. This is a drop-in class for the pair, and look out for him making moves as it may precede an attack by Ulissi.
Jarlinson Pantano
Should be commended for a fantastic summer spent entirely at the service of Alberto Contador, and now gets the chance to shine for himself. The efforts of such a long year might be beginning to drag on him at this point however, and he didn’t finish either the Giro dell'Emilia or Lombardia. However, this is a test that should suit him a lot more and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him bounce back in what ought to be much calmer waters.
Sergei Chernetckii
Astana have a good chance if he can keep his hot streak up. His fine trio of results since finishing the Vuelta read 18th at the World Championships, 12th in the Giro dell’ Emilia and 10th in Lombardia and now he’s on one of only four World Tour teams at this event. He is also likely to be quicker than many which helps given he finishes at this event outside of the Queen Stage, which is Stage 4.
David Arroyo
This suggestion is one for the more hardcore cycling fans and Eurosport watchers amongst us as Caja-Rural’s 37-year-old appears to have been given team leadership duties according to the website. Arroyo’s results this season do not make for pretty reading but he has been on team duty for much of those contests in far more exalted fields and his fifth at the Route du Sud shows that he is capable of pretty decent results. The team took the race last year with Jose Goncalves and they also do have Antonio Molina in form to support along with American Chris Butler.
