Eritreans Fly at the Tour of Türkiye
Metkel Eyob, 4th on GC, tells Global Peloton about the biggest result of his career
After a lacklustre start to the season, Team dsm-firmenich-Post NL have roared into life in the last couple of weeks. Romain Bardet’s 2nd place at Liege-Bastogne-Liege was backed-up last week by five stage wins and the overall for Frank Van den Broek at the Tour of Türkiye.
Not taking quite as many headlines at the race were two Eritrean riders who were flying high in the standings.
Long-time professional Merhawi Kudus was narrowly beaten by Van den Broek on the queen stage’s tough mountain top finish to Spil Dagi, after attacking solo on the climb. Now riding for Terengganu, Kudus has shown all season that he continues to race to a high level. Speaking in a message to Global Peloton briefly in the days after the race, the former EF and Astana rider was satisfied with his ‘big achievement’, despite narrowly missing out on a big victory.
More of a surprise was the performance of his team-mate and compatriot Metkel Eyob, who finished fourth on the queen stage and in the overall. The 30-year-old has made his career in Asia, racing for the Malaysian squad since 2018.
He has been one of the strongest climbers on the Asia Tour for most of that time, but this was his best result in a high-level event. Eyob shared some reflections with Global Peloton on his week in Türkiye:
Finishing fourth on GC in a highly competitive field feels incredibly rewarding. It’s a testament to the hard work and dedication put into training and preparation.
The final climb on stage 6 was gruelling. It was a relentless ascent with steep gradients, and the pace was relentless from the start. I focused on maintaining a steady rhythm and staying with the leading group.
This result gives me a boost of confidence for the upcoming races. It shows that I’m capable of competing at a high level and gives me motivation to continue pushing myself to improve.
There were three other Eritreans in the race. The Beykoz duo of Natnael Berhane and Petros Mengs competed in breakaways during the week and looked strong. Dawit Yemane, racing for Bike Aid, finished 15th overall.
After featuring alongside the Eritreans in Global Peloton’s preview of the race, Ethiopian Negasi Abreha looked impressive throughout. He was present on the intermediate stages, stringing out the peloton in support of his leaders. Then, Abreha got an opportunity of his own on the queen stage and was last man standing from the breakaway. It signifies a marked improvement for the 23-year-old and was comfortably his best race as a fully-fledged pro. More to come, perhaps.
Overall, it was a promising week for the African riders in Türkiye. For the home riders, however, it went probably just as expected - there were some flashes of potential, but they couldn’t challenge the big guys.
Young Samet Bulut of Beykoz spent the first day in the breakaway, earning enough points to wear the climber’s jersey for two days before giving it to Bike Aid’s Vincent Dorn. Bulut eventually finished third in the climber’s classification.
National champion Burak Abay was Türkiye’s best performer overall, finishing 24th.
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