Also, Of Castles and Ladders – Day 6, by Steve Thomas
Denizli, 1 May 2015 – Merhaba! from Day 6 of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, Denizli – Selcuk, 184 km. Today’s stage finish, which may offer the final opportunity for the climbing specialists to attack the race leader, Davide Rebellin, takes place against one of the most remarkable cultural and historical backdrops in world cycling.
Photo credit: Tour of Turkey/Steve Thomas
The peloton first meanders across the Maeander River, from which the word derives, then passes Tralles, the home of the sculptors of the magnificent, 2nd-century Farnese Bull, now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, and the birthplace of the architect who designed Istanbul’s breathtaking Hagia Sophia in the 6th century AD. It races past the railway museum where the Orient Express involved in the 1957 Yarımburgaz catastrophe now stands. Then, most remarkably, it approaches Ephesus, one of the most important archeological sites in Anatolia and the world, with the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and a remarkable ancient library.