Uudised

The professional cycling tour will take place 26.-28. of May. It will bring 24 teams, which is an all-time record. One of these teams is the World Tour level BikeExchange – Jayco cycling team.

Tanel Kangert, who usually rides the Giro d'Italia in May, missed the tour this year due to health problems in the beginning of the season. This lead to the opportunity to come to the Tour of Estonia for the first time. According to Kangert, he thought about Tour of Estonia as soon as he found out that he isn’t going to Giro this year. "This time: if Muhammad did not go to the mountain, the mountain itself came to Muhammad. In other words, if I wasn’t able to go to Giro and I didn’t have any races in May, I invited them to compete here," said Kangert. He told that getting the team to agree was quite easy, considering how difficult it is to organize logistics to come to Estonia from Western Europe.

Speaking about the team's goals on the tour, Kangert stated that they will come here to win. "There are a lot of men who prefer this kind of course like we have in Estonia," he said. Kangert could not talk about the division of roles within the team, because it will be clear in the near future. "We will probably take fast men with us. I'm definitely not a general classification rider here, I don't have the speed that a prologue or the final kilometers of the first stage require," he stated.

When the Tour of Estonia ends on May 28, then a day later Tartu Rattaralli will take place. Kangert himself last participated in 2010, but plans to take part again. "I told my team bosses that there is a race on Sunday and they have to stay here. I think that this event should be considered as a part of the Tour of Estonia," said Kangert.

According to Indrek Kelk, the race director of the Tour of Estonia, the news about Tanel Kangert and his home club coming here were very exciting. “There has been no such world-class team in Estonia since Jaan Kirsipuu raced here with the Ag2r team. Hopefully this will bring a lot of spectators. It is not often that such team competes on the Estonian roads,” explained Kelk.

This year's tour will be opened by a 3.7 km prologue held around Tallinn Song Festival Grounds. Then will be race from Tallinn to Tartu (192.6 km) and the last, but not least is Saturday's Tartu GP, where cyclists will have 10 x 10.3 km laps in Tartu (164.8 km).

In addition to the Tour of Estonia, the Ladies Tour of Estonia will take place for the first time on May 25.

For more than two years, spectators are expected to come and support the cyclists.