Cycling: Tour of Romania 2019 to take off today

The 52nd edition of the Tour of Romania, a 688-km long race, starts on Wednesday in the northwestern city of Cluj-Napoca at 10:45 am and will finish on Saturday in Bucharest. 

The Tour of Romania is one of the oldest and most prestigious national contests, with the first edition taking place in 1934, when Romania became the sixth country to organize a national cycling tour. 

This year the Tour of Romania was promoted to UCI 2.1 category, and will see 7 national and 12 continental teams compete. 

The total cost of organizing the race is about 450,000-500,000 euros, and the prize pot is 30,000 euros. 

As the Tour of Romania 2019 is aimed not only at promoting cycling, but also Romanian tourism, the penultimate stage will take the rider squads to Piatra Arsa, in the Bucegi Mountains. 

Romanian Serghei Tvetcov is the winner of last year's edition. 

This year's 5-stage program is as follows: Stage 1 (September 11) Cluj-Napoca - Sighisoara (168 km); Stage 2 (September 12) Brasov - Focsani (176.3 km); Stage 3 (September 13) Buzau - Targoviste (121.6 km); Stage 4 (September 14) Ploiesti - Piatra Arsa (126 km); Stage 5 (September 15) Bucharest (100.3 km, urban circuit).