Tour d’Azerbaidjan 2017 kicks off
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The Synergy Baku Cycling Project comes into the race with a strong line-up that includes recent double stage winner at the Tour du Maroc, and 14th place finisher in Azerbaijan last season, Krill Pozdnyakov, as well as teammate Elchin Asadov, a triple Azerbaijani TT champion and 2014 road champion.
The first stage of the race started from the National Flag Square in Baku and finished in Sumgayit city (150-km distance).
Mihkel Räim (Israel Cycling Academy) won the opening stage of Tour d’Azerbaidjan, crossing the finish line in Sumgayit just ahead of Emils Liepins (Rietumu Banka Riga) and Pier Paolo De Negri (Nippo - Vini Fantini).
After three years of competing at the Tour d'Azerbaidjan it was the first stage win and the first GC-jersey for Mihkel Raim.
Synergy Baku's cyclist Kirill Pozdnyakov won the second stage of Tour d’Azerbaidjan. The stage started from the Velopark near the Caspian seashore and head out to high Caucasus Mountains racing 187 km distance from Baku to Ismayilli. The stage was challenging with strong winds, winding roads and uphill.
The third stage will take the start from Gabala to Oghuzh racing 177 km towards Sheki then racing all the way around finishing in Gabala. Stones on a site near the medieval Caravanserai can become a serious challenge for the riders.
Gabala will be the start for the fourth stage. After racing 164 km kilometers the riders will reach up to the finish line near Pirqulu. The route will go through Aghsu mountain cliffs up to Pirgulu.
The final ascent towards Gabala is really a large semi-flat, where even the sprinters hang on. In terms of difficulty the real king of the Azerbaijani challenge is stage 4, leading to Pirqulu, at an altitude of more than 1300 m.
Tour d’Azerbaidjan is a great place to spot emerging talent. The two current giants of the peloton, Primoz Roglic, winner in 2015 and, especially, Ilnur Zakarin, winner in 2014, made their names here. The Slovenian and the Russian were completely unknown until their victories in the Tour of Azerbaijan kickstarted their careers.
The same can be said for Michael Schwarzmann, winner of the final stage in 2016, a few months before he narrowly missed out on success in the Vuelta. So who will it be in 2017?
In 2018, Azerbaijan will host BMX World Championship.