ASTANA – Alexey Lutsenko who rides for Astana ProTeam recently won 4th stage of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey.
Photo credit: inform.kz.
Lutsenko got ahead of Italian’s Diego Ulissi, who rides for UAE-Team Emirates, and Spain’s Eduard Prades riding for Euskadi-Murias (second and third respectively) to the finish line of the 205.5-kilometre race.
“The race wasn’t easy, as the last two stages turned out to be nervous. There were many attacks as only seconds separated the rivals, and the overall results of the main competitors were very close to each other. Unfortunately, I failed to win, but it is a race. I am glad to win the most difficult and longest mountain stage of the race. This is my final race in the season. And it is a good result to finish it on the podium as this season was a further step towards my development as a leader for weekly races after winning the Tour of Oman early in the year and the Tour of Turkey stage and stepping its podium,” said Lutsenko.
The victory gave the Kazakh cyclist the chance to finish the race second in the general classification of the Tour of Turkey. Kazakh cyclists Andrey Kiviliev in 1995, Sergey Lavrinenko in 2000, and Alexander Dyachenko in 2012 have already won the Tour of Turkey.
This season has been rich in bright moments and victories for Lutsenko. In addition to the successful performance in the Tour of Turkey, Lutsenko has won one of the Tour of Austria stages, Kazakhstan’s national championships and two gold medals at the Asian Games this season. Next season, the Kazakh cyclist will be among Astana ProTeam’s leading racers.
