Jesse Ewart and Cormac Mcgeough carry Irish hopes into Tour of Turkey

*Arvid de Kleijn (Rally Cycling) beats Kristoffer Halvorsen (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) and Pierre Barbier (Delko) for the victory on stage 1 at the Tour of Turkey today*

Jesse Ewart and Cormac Mcgeough both carry Irish hopes in the Tour of Turkey over the coming week and, based on past performances, they can make an impact on the race.

The opening stage was won today by Dutch rider Arvid de Kleijn (Rally Cycling) in a bunch sprint from former U23 world road race champion Kristoffer Halvorsen (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) and Pierre Barbier (Delko)

Ewart (Team Sapura Cycling) is a 26-year-old Australian-born rider who has declared for Ireland. Mcgeough (Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling) has been an Irish citizen from birth but grew up in the US.

*Jesse Ewart has taken significant wins and other results in pro races and recent seasons and he may surprise a few people when the road kicks up in Turkey over the next week*

Both Irish riders finished in the main bunch today on what was a shortened stage of 72.4km starting and finishing in Konya. The stage was reduced and the route significantly change due to snowfall on the original hilly course.

While last season saw racing opportunities diminished due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Mcgeough (24) has been in Turkey racing with his US Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling team and posting solid results for the past two months.

Mcgeough has often left his mark on pro races by riding in the breakaways and took 3rd on a stage at the Tour of the Gila in the US a couple of years ago with a breakaway ride.

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Mcgeough also animated stages of the Tour de Langkawi last season - before the pandemic shut down pro cycling for a period - and put in an aggressive display a couple of seasons ago at Tour of Taihu Lake, where he held the young rider classification jersey.

Ewart has had a slower start to the season with the Tour of Turkey his first race of the year, aside from the Australian road race championships way back in early January which he was allowed to start.

However, his 5th place in what was a very tough Australian title race showed he was in great condition and based on other previous results he could pull off something big this week in Turkey.

Ewart has won several UCI-ranked races in recent years including the final yellow jersey, twice, at the Tour de Singkarak, a 2.2-ranked race in Indonesia. He was also 6th overall in the Herald Sun Tour last year before Covid-19 intervened.