Yuriy Natarov – overall winner of Tour of Almaty 2019

Today, on August 31, the seventh professional road bicycle race Tour of Almaty-2019 ended. For the third time in a row, it had multi-day stages, with the format settling on two stages. The first stage was held on August 30 and consisted of 118 kilometers on the territory of the Industrial Park. The winner was Patryk Stosz from the Polish CCC Development Team.

At the second mountain stage, the riders overcome 160 kilometers. This stage has already become the visiting card of the Tour of Almaty. Had the start line near the Halyk Arena, then participants moved up the Eastern Bypass Road. Having reached Al-Farabi Avenue, the peloton continued to move westward to the roundabout on Mustafina Street and then returned to the finish line on Khaliullin Street. The cyclists drove 4.5 laps, after which the final segment of the race took place - from the First President Park to the high-mountain skating rink Medeu.

During the race, the participants made several attempts to attack, but each time a general group overtook them. The key attack was appertained by Yuriy Natarov from Astana Pro Team, Russian Nikolai Cherkasov from Gazprom-RusVelo and Danilo Chelano from Amore & Vita-Prodir. They determined placing.

Chelano became the winner of the second stage 3:51:57, Cherkasov finished second (+0.01). Natarov finished third (+0.04) and, in consequence of his score after the mass sprint in the first stage, he won the general classification. In the overall standings, the Kazakh rider edged the Russian Gazprom-RusVelo cyclist Aleksandr Vlasov by 26 seconds, and Chelano by 38 seconds, who became the third.

"I really enjoyed the race. We had two contenders who could contest the victory. It's no secret that Stalnov is really good mountain specialist. Yesterday we finished with such a strong cyclist as Vlasov almost at the same time. However, during the race, it all happened. There were a lot of strong riders. It was necessary to keep track of everybody", - said Natarov.

Also, Natarov became the owner of the best Kazakh cyclist jersey. Sprint ranking was led by the winner of the first stage Patryck Stosz from the CCC Development Team. The Polka dot jersey of the best mountain cyclist got Yevgeniy Fedorov from Vino Astana Motors.

The total prize fund of the Tour of Almaty-2019 amounted to 40 thousand euros. At each stage, the first 20 cyclists were awarded cash prizes. Also, 20 riders were noted according to the results of the general classification. The winners of each of the additional classifications for each of the two stages and in the final table were also awarded separate cash prizes.

The President of the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation Darkhan Kaletayev, noted that it is a time to expand the Tour of Almaty to the regional scale: Tour of Almaty has already proved itself. I believe that the race has already taken a worthy place in the calendar of world cycling. But the race needs to be expanded. I would like to include all the possibilities of the Almaty region. Having excellent environmental resources, such as the Charyn Canyon, it must become a partner in the race. I hope that eventually such a decision will be made. "

The general information partner of the Tour of Almaty-2019 was the Qazsport TV channel. In addition, the final segment of the second stage was broadcast on Eurosport channel.