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.

Brisaspor
Team information
RegisteredTurkey
Founded1982 (1982) (men)
2001 (2001) (women)
2005 (2005) (mountainbike)
Discipline(s)Road, mountain
BicyclesColnago (road)
Salcano (mountainbike)
Team name history
Lassaspor (1982-1999)
Cansu Celebi during 2014 UEC Road EU Championship, St.Wendel/Germany

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

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Bilal Akgül during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
 
Semra Yetiş during the 2009 UCI Road World Championships in Mendrisio

As of July 2016.[3]

Senior men's

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Rider Date of birth
  Aleksandar Aleksiev (BUL)
  Onur Balkan (TUR) (1996-03-10) March 10, 1996 (age 28)
  Gökhan Hasta (TUR)
  Stefan Histrov (BUL) (1985-07-12) July 12, 1985 (age 39)
  Turgut Kafes (TUR)
  Adil Kurkut (TUR)
Rider Date of birth
  Kemal Küçükbay (TUR) (1982-08-23) August 23, 1982 (age 42)
  Uğur Marmara (TUR)
  Ali Rıza Tanrıverdi (TUR)
  Lütfullah Tanrıverdi (TUR)
  Recep Ünalan (TUR) (1985-04-09) April 9, 1985 (age 39)

MTB men's

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Rider Date of birth
  Bilal Akgül (TUR) (1982-10-13) October 13, 1982 (age 42)
  Halil İbrahim Doğan (TUR)
  Sinan İli (TUR)
Rider Date of birth
  Abdülkadir Kelleci (TUR)
  Mustafa Köklü (TUR)
  Yunus Emre Yılmaz (TUR)

Women's

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Rider Date of birth
  Ebru C. Andaş (TUR)
  Beyza Kahveci (TUR)
  Merve Tayfun Marmara (TUR)
Rider Date of birth
  Cansu Celebi (TUR)
  Ece Yıldırım (TUR)

Major wins

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National champions

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Brisa / Brisaspor". Brisa. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
  2. ^ "Two Turkish cyclists will race at Rio". SporX (in Turkish). 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2016-07-29.
  3. ^ "Brisaspor 2016 Team". Brisaspor. Archived from the original on 2016-06-18. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
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