Home > News

With four WorldTour teams racing, Tour of Turkey struggles to stay relevant

Penultimate WorldTour stage race moved from original date in April

07-09-2017 Vuelta A Espana; Tappa 18 Suances - Santo Toribio De Liebana; 2017, Trek - Segafredo; Pantano Gomez, Jarlinson; Santo Toribio De Liebana;
October 9, 2017
Share on SMS

On Tuesday, the penultimate WorldTour race of the season, the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, begins in Alanya. It has a surprisingly long history–this year’s race is the 55th edition–with Bulgarians earning the second most turquoise jerseys to the home Turks. However, this stage race hovers perilously over shambolic territory, with only four of the 18 WorldTour teams set to start.

How can this be? Despite only attracting two WorldTour teams in 2016 when it was 2HC-rated, the Tour of Turkey was one of 10 new events for 2017, which the UCI declared non-mandatory for the WorldTour squads. This explains why only 11 of the 20 teams that contested early May’s one-day Eschborn-Frankfurt ‘Rund um den Finanzplatz’ were WorldTour (Alexander Kristoff won his second straight, by the way). But the Tour of Turkey’s four out of 13 teams of World Tour status is only one of its problems.


Originally, the race was scheduled for April but found no traction with teams both WorldTour and non-WorldTour amid security concerns and clashes with Spring Classics dates. Lotto-Soudal and LottoNL-Jumbo both stated publicly that they wouldn’t attend. So in February, the UCI moved the race to October.

The race itself was cloaked in a bit of mystery, with the route details only announced on September 25. By that time it was clear that the race was going ahead with only Astana, Bora-Hansgrohe, Trek-Segafredo, and UAE Team Emirates as the WorldTour teams. This will give Pro Continental and Continental teams both familiar (Caja Rural, CCC, Bardiani-CSF) and unfamiliar (WB Veranclassic Aqua Protect) a chance to impress.

A recently posted UCI WorldTour schedule for next year has the Tour of Turkey again slated for October. But the race must draw 10 WorldTour teams in 2018 or lose its status in the top tier. There’s the chance that it will get bumped down to 2HC again before that.