PRESIDENTIAL TOUR OF TURKEY: GÜNAYDIN FROM ISTANBUL FOR STAGE 6

Selçuk, 15 October – Günaydın from Istanbul, one of the great cities of the world and the setting for Stage 6 of the 53rd Presidential Tour of Turkey, the Salcano Istanbul-Istanbul Stage (143.7 km).

With 12 seconds separating the race leader, Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) from second-placed Jesper Hansen (Astana Pro Team), and five seconds standing between the outstanding 21-year-old Daniel Martínez (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia), fourth in GC, and the podium place of Fausto Masnada (Androni–Sidermec–Bottecchia), a second's lack of concentration, a moment's disorganisation in case of myriad possible incidents, could upturn the race lead.

All photography, credit Brian Hodes / VeloImages

Sam Bennett (BORA Hansgrohe) has taken four stage wins and will be the hot favourite to take a fifth today. However, Edward Theuns (Trek Segafredo) has finished third, second, second and fourth in the sprints and will be keen to finish his TUR with that elusive win.

In the Turkish Airlines Red Jersey mountains competition, if Danilo Celano (Caja Rural – RGA Seguros) can take both mountain points on today's stage, he can move to equal points with Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF), and win the competition by virtue only of having won the only first category climb of the race.

Just 21 seconds separate the team competition leaders, Pro Continental formation Wilier Triestina - Selle Italia, from second-placed UAE Team Emirates, a mighty WorldTour team. That competition too is subject to instant, radical change.

In the Vestel White Jersey competition for the “Beauties of Turkey” sprints, the Turkish national team has been focused, disciplined and extremely successful: Onur Balkan has 10 points and has held the lead

since day 1. His team-mate Feritcan Samli lies second, just two points behind. Even so, Alex Turrin (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia) moved onto euqal points with Samli yesterday, while Greg Daniel (Trek Segafredo) is one 5 points and one “Beauties of Turkey” sprint away from joint leadership. So, mathematically, four riders are still in contentnion.

Meanwhile, Daniel Martínez (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia)'s nearest competition in the Young Rider category is his team-mate and fellow Colombian Miguel Flórez, a distant 1 minute 19 seconds away. The brilliant young Bogotá native is alone in being allowed to feel confident that he is more or less assured of victory, albeit in a category lacking a distinctive jersey here.

So, with almost everything still up for grabs, the stage rolls out at 11.20 local time. The start of racing (km 0) follows a 6.7 km neutralised section.

Jerseys

Spor Toto Turquoise jersey: overall race leader: Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates)

Turkish Airlines Red Jersey: mountain classification leader: Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF)

Vestel White Jersey: Beauties of Turkey classification leader: Onur Balkan (Turkish national team)

Salcano Green Jersey: points classification leader: Sam Bennett (BORA-Hansgrohe)

 

Today's stage:

km 25.2

a category 4 climb worth 2 and 1 points in the Turkish Airlines Red Jersey competition to the first 2 riders across

km 54.6

a “Beauties of Turkey” sprint worth 5, 3, and 1 point towards the Vestel White Jersey

 

km 129.7:

an intermediate sprint worth 5, 3 and 1 points towards the Salcano Green Jersey to the first 3 riders across, and also 3, 2, and 1 bonus seconds towards the Spor Toto Turquoise jersey

 

km 143.7:

the stage finish, worth 15, 14, 13 ,12 etc. points to the first 15 riders across, and 10, 6 and 4 bonus seconds towards the Spor Toto Turquoise jersey

 

Total: 20 Salcano Green Jersey points, 2 Turkish Airlines Red Jersey points, 5 Vestel White Jersey points, and 13 bonus seconds.

 

Stage 6 profiles

Stage 6 finish

Istanbul, a feast of cultural and historical sites

STAGE START: Intercity Istanbul Park, the Formula 1 circuit in Tuzla, east of Istanbul. It was inaugurated on 21 August 2005.

GALATA BRIDGE (41° 1' 12.97" N, 28° 58' 24.80" E): spans the Golden Horn. The first recorded bridge over the Golden Horn was built during the reign of Justinian the Great in the 6th century. In 1453, during the Fall of Constantinople, the Turks assembled a mobile bridge by placing their ships side by side across the water, so that their troops could move from one side of the Golden Horn to the other.

A symbolic link between the traditional city of Istanbul proper, site of the imperial palace and principal religious and secular institutions of the empire, and the districts of Galata, Beyoğlu, Şişli and Harbiye where a large proportion of the inhabitants were non-Muslims and where foreign merchants and diplomats lived and worked. In this respect the bridge bonded these two distinctive cultures. As Peyami Safa wrote in his novel, Fatih-Harbiye, a person who went from Fatih to Harbiye via the bridge set foot in a different civilization and different culture.

In the years 1502–1503 there were plans to construct the first bridge at the current location. Leonardo da Vinci designed an unprecedented single span 240m long and 24m wide structure which would have become the longest bridge in the world at the time. However, Sultan Bayezid II did not approve the ambitious design.

The first Galata Bridge at the mouth of the waterway was a wooden structure constructed in 1845 by Valide Sultan, the mother of Sultan Abdülmecid (1839–1861) and used for 18 years.

This bridge was replaced by a second wooden bridge in 1863, during the infrastructure improvement works prior to the visit of Napoleon III to Istanbul.

The third bridge, completed in 1875, was 480 m long and 14 m wide and rested on 24 pontoons. It was used until 1912, when it was pulled upstream to replace the old Cisr-i Atik Bridge.

The fourth Galata Bridge was built in 1912 by the German firm Hüttenwerk Oberhausen AG. This floating bridge was 466 m long and 25 m wide. It was badly damaged in a fire in 1992 and towed up the Golden Horn to make way for the modern bridge now in use.

The fifth Galata bridge was built by the Turkish construction company STFA just a few meters away from the previous bridge, between Karaköy and Eminönü, and completed in December 1994. It is a bascule bridge, which is 490 m long with a main span of 80 m. The deck of the bridge is 42 m wide and has three vehicular lanes and one walkway in each direction. It has also recently had tram tracks added. The rest of the bridge including the market area in the first floor opened to common use in 2003.

BOSPHORUS BRIDGE (41° 2' 39.64" N, 29° 2' 7.89" E): also called the First Bosphorus Bridge or simply the First Bridge, one of two suspension bridges spanning the Bosphorus strait, connecting Europe and Asia (the other one is the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, which is called the Second Bosphorus Bridge.) The bridge is located between Ortaköy (on the European side) and Beylerbeyi (on the Asian side). With an aerodynamic deck hanging on zigzag steel cables, the bridge is 1,560 m (5,118 ft) long with a deck width of 33.40 m (110 ft). The distance between the towers (main span) is 1,074 m (3,524 ft) and the total height of the towers is 165 m (541 ft). The clearance of the bridge from sea level is 64 m (210 ft). When it was completed in 1973, the Bosphorus Bridge was the 4th longest suspension bridge span in the world, and the longest outside the United States. At present, it is the 22nd longest suspension bridge span in the world.

Herodotus born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern-day Bodrum, Turkey) in c. 484 BC, and described by Cicero as "The Father of History,” records that Mandrocles of Samos, commissioned by Emperor Darius I The Great, engineered a pontoon bridge that stretched across the Bosphorus, linking Asia to Europe, so that Darius could pursue the fleeing Scythians as well as move his army into position in the Balkans to overwhelm Macedon. The current bridge was completed on 30 October 1973, one day after the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey. At the time the bridge was opened, much was made of its being the first bridge between Europe and Asia since the pontoon bridge of Xerxes in 480 BCE. That bridge, however, spanned the Hellespont (Dardanelles), some distance away from the Bosphorus, and was the second bridge after the above mentioned bridge built by Emperor Darius I The Great across the Bosphorus in 513 BCE.

The bridge highway has a total width of six lanes (eight including the emergency lanes.)[1] Each direction has three lanes for vehicular traffic plus one emergency lane and one sidewalk.[1] On weekday mornings, commuter traffic flows mostly westbound to the European part, so four of the six lanes run westbound and only two eastbound. Conversely, on weekday evenings, four lanes are dedicated to eastbound traffic and two lanes only to westbound.

BEYLERBEYI PALACE (41° 2' 33.87” N, 29° 2' 23.58” E): an Imperial Ottoman summer residence built in the 1860s, it is now situated immediately north of the 1973 Bosphorus Bridge. Empress Eugénie of France visited Beylerbeyi on her way to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and had her face slapped by the sultan's mother, Pertevniyal Sultan, for daring to enter the palace on the arm of Abdülaziz. (Despite her initial reception, Empress Eugénie of France was so delighted by the elegance of the palace that she had a copy of the window in the guest room made for her bedroom in Tuileries Palace, in Paris.) Other regal visitors to the palace included the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The palace was the last place of captivity of the deposed sultan Abdulhamid II from 1912 until his death there in 1918.

DOLMABAHCE PALACE (41° 2' 22.96" N, 29° 0' 6.60" E): in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul, Turkey, on the European coastline of the Bosphorus strait, the palace was the main administrative center of the Ottoman Empire and home to six Sultans from 1856, when it was first inhabited, up until the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924, apart from a 22-year interval (1887–1909) in which Yıldız Palace was used.

A law that went into effect on March 3, 1924 transferred the ownership of the palace to the national

heritage of the new Turkish Republic. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey, used the palace as a presidential residence during the summers and enacted some of his most important works here. Atatürk spent the last days of his medical treatment in this palace. He died at 9:05 a.m. on November 10, 1938, in a bedroom, located in the former Harem section of the palace. All the clocks in the palace were stopped and set to 9:05 after his death. Although this has changed recently and the clocks outside of his room are now set to the actual time in Turkey, the clock in the room where he died is still pointing to 9:05 a.m.

GALATA TOWER (km ?, 41° 1' 32.35" N, 28° 58' 28.46" E): built as Christea Turris (Tower of Christ) in 1348 during an expansion of the Genoese colony in Constantinople. Galata Tower was the tallest building in Istanbul at 219½ feet (66.9 m) when it was built in 1348. built to replace the old Tower of Galata, an original Byzantine tower named Megalos Pyrgos (English: Great Tower) which controlled the northern end of the massive sea chain that closed the entrance to the Golden Horn. That tower was on a different site and was largely destroyed in 1203, during the Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204. According to the Seyahatname of Ottoman historian and traveller Evliya Çelebi, in circa 1630-1632, Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi flew as an early intercontinental aviator using artificial wings for gliding from this tower over the Bosphorus to the slopes of Üsküdar on the Anatolian side, nearly six kilometres away. Evliyâ Çelebi also tells of Hezarfen's brother, Lagari Hasan Çelebi, performing the first flight with a rocket in a conical cage filled with gunpowder in 1633.

It stands in the Galata/Karaköy quarter of Istanbul, Turkey, just to the north of the Golden Horn's junction with the Bosphorus. One of the city's most striking landmarks, it is a high, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline and offers a panoramic vista of Istanbul's historic peninsula and its environs.

TOPKAPI PALACE (41° 0' 43.10" N, 28°59'2.45”E): The primary residence of the Ottoman sultans for approximately 400 years (1465–1856) of their 624-year reign. It is now a museum and as such a major tourist attraction. It also contains important holy relics of the Muslim world, including Muhammed's cloak and sword. The Topkapı Palace is among the monuments contained within the "Historic Areas of Istanbul", which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985

HAGIA SOPHIA (41° 0' 31.03" N, 28° 58' 49.15" E): From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935. Although sometimes referred to as Sancta Sophia (as though it were named after Saint Sophia), sophia being the phonetic spelling in Latin of the Greek word for wisdom, its full name in Greek is Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, "Shrine of the Holy Wisdom of God.” said to have "changed the history of architecture". It remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. The current building was originally constructed as a church between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and was the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the previous two having both been destroyed by rioters. It was designed by the Greek scientists Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles.

GRAND BAZAAR (41° 0' 38.47" N, 28° 58' 5.04" E): one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 3,000 shops which attract between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. In 2014, it is listed No.1 among world's most-visited tourist attractions with 91,250,000 annual visitors.

Finish line - BLUE MOSQUE (41° 0' 19.92" N, 28° 58' 35.85" E)

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, with one main dome, six minarets, and eight secondary domes. Built from 1609 to 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I, and known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior. Its Külliye contains a tomb of the founder, a madrasah and a hospice. The Sultan