DHA Photo
The third edition of L’Étape Türkiye by Tour de France brought nearly 2,000 cyclists together in Istanbul on Sept. 20, offering amateur riders the opportunity to race across the city’s European and Asian sides while showcasing Türkiye as a destination for sports tourism.
The race started and finished at Ümraniye National Garden, with three courses of approximately 100, 50 and 30 kilometers. All three routes included an intercontinental crossing, while the longer courses also passed through the Riva area and along roads connecting the city’s urban and coastal landscapes.
Ömer Kafkas, general director of L’Étape Türkiye by Tour de France, said before the event that the organization had evolved beyond a conventional sporting competition into a broader tourism, promotion and communications initiative.
“We are talking about a multinational race, with nearly half of our athletes coming from abroad,” Kafkas said. He said many international participants arrived in Istanbul several days before the race to explore the city and train on the course, while cyclists from nearly 50 Turkish cities also traveled to Istanbul for the event.
Kafkas said the race had become an opportunity to promote cycling in Türkiye while giving participants access to a course that would normally be impossible to close to traffic. He described it as the only race in the world to offer an intercontinental route, with views encompassing both the Marmara and Black seas.
The 30-kilometer “Intercontinental Experience” course was designed for a wider group of amateur cyclists to take part in the Tour de France experience.
Kafkas also highlighted the extensive preparation required to stage an event under the Tour de France brand. He said the integration process with Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), which organizes the Tour de France, took around 1.5 years and involved a checklist of roughly 1,000 requirements covering areas including music, podium ceremonies, race convoy management, security, medical services and environmental standards.
Looking ahead, Kafkas said Türkiye could eventually host the Tour de France’s Grand Départ, the opening stage of the prestigious professional race. He noted that such an undertaking would be considerably larger than L’Étape, requiring thousands of personnel, hundreds of vehicles and extensive accommodation and logistical capacity.
Kafkas said ASO officials and Tour de France directors had visited Istanbul during the past three and a half years and responded positively to the city’s setting and organizational capabilities.
“Tour de France is a 123-year-old brand,” Kafkas said, describing it as a major sporting diplomacy platform for France. He added that the growing scale of L’Étape Türkiye reflected increasing interest in cycling in Türkiye and the country’s developing infrastructure for large-scale cycling events.
