Brisaspor Explained

Brisaspor
Registered:	Turkey
Founded:	(men) (women) (mountainbike)
Bicycles:	Colnago (road) Salcano (mountainbike)
Discipline:	Road, mountain
Oldname:	Lassaspor (1982-1999)

Brisaspor is a Turkish professional road bicycle racing team based in Kocaeli, and sponsored by the local Brisa Bridgestone Sabancı Lastik company of Turkish Sabancı Group, which produces and distributes Bridgestone tires from Japan. The cycling team is part of the Brisaspor Club.

Preparations to form a cycling team goes back to 1978, when a summer camp was opened to build infrastructure. The team was officially established in 1982 with the twelve sportspeople from the summer camp as Lassaspor, which was sponsored by the Turkish Lassa company that is the main facility for the production of both tire brands.^[1]

Already in 1983, the team became Turkish champion.^[1] In 1999, Brisaspor began to participate at competitions of international level. It is the first champion of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey. Between 2001 and 2007, Brisa became seven consecutive times champion of the Tour of Turkey. In 2001, women cycling team was formed. From 2005 on, the club took part in mountain biking (MTB) competitions.

Team member Bilal Akgül became the first ever Turkish Olympian cyclist participating at the mountain biking event of 2008 Summer Olympics. Kemal Küçükbay took part at the men's road race event of 2012 Summer Olympics. Team member Onur Balkan qualified for participation in the road race event at the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[2]

Brisaspor consists of 28 sportspeople, five technical staff, twelve senior men, seven junior men and four women.

Team roster

As of July 2016.^[3]

G.Manager: Nadir Yavuz
Coach: Mert Mutlu

Women's

Major wins

1999

Overall Tour of Mevlana, Mert Mutlu

2000

Overall Tour of Mevlana, Mert Mutlu

2001

Overall Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, Mert Mutlu

2003

Overall Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, Mert Mutlu

Stage 5, Mert Mutlu

2005

Overall Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey

Stage 3, Mert Mutlu

2009

OverallTour du Maroc, Alexandr Dymovskikh

Stage 3, Alexandr Dymovskikh

2010

Overall Tour of Marmara, Kemal Küçükbay

Stage 1 Tour of Marmara, Mert Mutlu

2011

Overall Tour of Trakya, Kemal Küçükbay

Stage 3, Kemal Küçükbay

Overall Cappadocia, Mert Mutlu

Stage 1, Mert Mutlu

Overall Tour of Victory, Nazim Bakırcı

Stage 3, Nazim Bakırcı

2012

Overall Grand Prix Dobrich II, Stefan Hristov

2013

Tour of Bulgaria

Stage 2, Stefan Hristov

Overall Tour of Szeklerland, Georgi Petrov Georgiev

Stages 2, Georgi Petrov Georgiev

2014

Overall Tour of Szeklerland, Stefan Hristov

Stages 2 & 3a (ITT), Stefan Hristov

2015

Tour of Ankara

Points classification, Onur Balkan

Stages 2 & 3, Onur Balkan

Stage 2 Tour of Aegean, Onur Balkan

Black Sea Cycling Tour

Points classification, Onur Balkan

Stage 2, Onur Balkan

Tour of Çanakkale

Points classification, Onur Balkan

Stage 1, Onur Balkan

Stage 2 Tour of Mersin, Onur Balkan

Mountains classification International Tour of Torku Mevlana, Onur Balkan

Overall Tour of Bulgaria, Stefan Hristov

Stage 2, Stefan Hristov

2016

Stage 2 Tour du Maroc, Onur Balkan

Tour de Serbie

Mountains classification, Stefan Hristov

Stage 2, Georgi Petrov Georgiev

National champions

2005

Road Race Championships, Kemal Küçükbay

2006

Road Race Championships, Bilal Akgül

U23 Road Race Championships, Recep Ünalan

2007

Road Race Championships, Uğur Marmara

U23 Road Race Championships, Recep Ünalan

2008

Road Race Championships, Orhan Şahin

Time Trial Championships, Kemal Küçükbay

U23 Road Race Championships, Recep Ünalan

2009

Time Trial Championships, Muhammet Eyüp Karagöbek

2010

Road Race Championships, Behçet Usta

Time Trial Championships, Kemal Küçükbay

2011

Road Race Championships, Kemal Küçükbay

Time Trial Championships, Mert Mutlu

2012

Time Trial Championships, Muhammet Eyüp Karagöbek

Women Road Race Championships, Semra Yetiş

Women Time Trial Championships, Merve Tayfun Marmara

U23 Road Race Championships, Lütfullah Tanrıverdi

2013

U23 Road Race Championships, Onur Balkan

U23 Time Trial Championships, Onur Balkan

2014

National Time Trial Championships, Stefan Hristov

Women Time Trial Championships, Cansu Celebi

U23 Road Race Championships, Onur Balkan

2016

Road Race Championships, Onur Balkan

Road Race Championships, Georgi Georgiev

External links

Official website

Notes and References

Web site: Brisa / Brisaspor . Brisa . 2013-05-01 .
News: Two Turkish cyclists will race at Rio . . 2016-07-29 . Turkish . 2016-07-29 .
Web site: Brisaspor 2016 Team . Brisaspor . 2016-07-01 . 2016-06-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160618101406/http://www.brisaspor.com/index.php/takim/ . dead .