Aus Deutschland sind dabei Jan Brockhoff vom schwedischen Developmentteam Giant-Shimano und für das Rad-Net -Rose Team gehen Henning Bommel, Fabian Brintrup, Emanuel Buchmann, Marco Mathis, Joshua Stritzinger und Mario Vogt an Start.
The Tour d’Azerbaidjan is once again featuring a top selection of riders for the upcoming race (May 7-11). This year’s peloton will include the winners of the first two editions of the race, as well as former WorldTour pro riders and Azeri riders eager to do well in their homeland race. Ukrainian Serhiy Grechyn of Turkish team Torku Sekerspor will look to defend his title from last year, and 2012 winner Youcef Reguigui (MTN-Qhubeka) will try to re-claim the title again for Algeria.

Several riders who have ridden at the top of pro cycling will also be in the race. Juan Jose Cobo (Torku Sekerspor) won the Vuelta a Espana in 2011, and can claim two stages in the Vuelta and one at the Tour de France. His teammate David de la Fuente wore the King of the Mountains jersey for a number of stages in 2006.

Some of the candidates for the overall title are Remi Di Gregorio (La Pomme Marsaille), who won the Tour of Taiwan, Croatian Radoslav Rogina (Adria Mobil), and Merhawi Kudus (MTN-Qhubeka), who put in a strong performance at the recent Mzansi Tour in South Africa. The South African team has yet another good candidate, Spanish climber Sergio Pardilla. Youngster Fredrik Ludvigsson of Development Team Giant-Shimano may be a surprise winner.

The sprinters will play a major role in the race. Christoph Schweizer of Azeri-based Synergy Baku Cycling Project won the opening stage at last year’s race, and will be joined by sprinter Maksym Averin, who won the Porec Trophy in March. Kenny Van Hummel (Androni Giacttoli – Venezuala) is always a man to watch in a bunch sprint.

There will be at least two Azeri riders in the race, from Synergy Baku, Samir Jabrayilov and Elchin Asadov.

You can download the provisional start list here