By Emre Asikci
ISTANBUL (AA) - Victor Langellotti, the sixth stage winner of the Tour of Türkiye, said he has never been to Türkiye, except for racing.
"It's such a beautiful place," he told Anadolu after winning the stage Friday.
Langellotti, 28, said he is impressed with the nice place. "I didn't know that Pope Francis and Benedict visited here."
"Racing in Türkiye makes me maybe think of coming back to Türkiye for holidays and visiting," said Langellotti.
The Tour of Türkiye has hosted famous cyclists from around the world, including Alexei Lutsenko, Mark Cavendish and Jasper Philipsen.
"Good riders like Alexei Lutsenko are fantastic champions. I don't even know how many professional wins he has. So, it's always good to fight against those guys and to be able to beat them," he noted.
The Burgos BH team cyclist said he liked the fact that the Tour of Türkiye was followed with interest by Turkish people and there are a lot of people cheering for us.
"And we see that the Turkish people really like sports and cycling so it's a pleasure to come here to race," said Langellotti. "Tour of Türkiye was a very challenging race. It's been a really good race. It suits my quality."
The Monegasque cyclist said the sixth stage was pretty special because he had a good start to the season but the second half was pretty bad.
"I was hoping for a win and hoping to get some confidence back. The plan was to come here to compete for a win so it was it was a good a good choice. I'm really happy to have been able to win here and super happy," he said.
Having started on Sunday from the district of Alanya -- a picturesque town on the famed province of Antalya's Mediterranean coast -- the race will end in the metropolis of Istanbul on Oct. 15 after cyclists travel eight days and 1,235 kilometers (767 miles) along the Turkish Riviera.