Matteo Malucelli: "This is a very important win to me"

Gazprom - Rusvelo's Matteo Malucelli won the opening stage of the Tour of Antalya today on what was his first win since 2018.

It was a hard finale where crashes took a lot of riders out of contention, however amidst the chaos it was the Italian, who is riding his first race with the Russian Gazprom - Rusvelo squad, who came home first as he battled head-on with Jakub Mareczko.

"Last year I had the coronavirus and it was a tough period. In the run-up to the season I was able to complete two good training camps. I had a good preparation and worked hard on my sprint," Malucelli said after the finish.

He added: "I have stayed at home like a hermit for the past two weeks, for fear of a new Covid infection." Luckily for him, that didn't become reality, and today in Turkey he gets to celebrate in a sigh of relief.

"The goal is of course to win more races. This is a very important win to me."

The four-day Tour of Antalya should feature another couple of stages which are suited to the sprinters, Malucelli surely will be ambitioning another win by the team the week is done.