Turkish Cycling Federation President Emin Müftüoğlu was the guest of the “Gündem Special” program broadcast on D-Smart screens. Answering Faik Gürses’ questions, Müftüoğlu briefly said:
“We want to make the bicycle a common means of transportation”
The earthquake in our country, which we call the disaster of the century, really upset me. On the second day of the earthquake, Mehmet Samsa, our vice president, had 6-7 trucks loaded with food and drink and landed in Kahramanmaraş. They helped where they could. When we got there, we saw that the state and everybody was there. Everyone spread out over the field with a great love of duty. I saw that this nation was trying to reduce people’s suffering by giving hands and heart to heart.
Together with the Serbian Federation, we will organize an organization in Belgrade on April 23 to share the pain experienced by the earthquake. We will send our athletes in the earthquake zone there to give morale.
We are growing the bike. With the closed velodrome in Konya, the face of the Turkish bicycle will change a lot. We would like to thank President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for bringing the velodrome to our country. Our Minister of Youth and Sports Dr. As the cycling family, we would like to thank Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu very much. We saved the next 50 years. Our country will bring both world champions and Olympic medals from this velodrome. I believe and know that great success will come in 10 years.
We no longer have excuses. Bicycle will grow with the slogan “We are Growing the Bicycle”. All our coaches will make a great effort. We want to bring them all to Konya and benefit from them here.
Foreign teams coming to Antalya from other countries will be able to benefit from the velodrome by reaching Konya in 2 hours with the opening of the tunnels in the winter season. We want to open this door to them, as well as to grow the velodrome by working together and training together as in Mallorca.
When we started the World Federation in 2013, the Australian Continental Federation President was a woman, and today female athletes are doing the smaller of a tour like the Tour de France. They are doing this tour by closing the city of Paris. We want to take the women’s team and prepare them for a tour. Our talks with the sponsors came to a certain point. Later, we want to do these on track bikes as well.
We have important events this year. Since it is the 100th anniversary of both our Republic and our federation, we will do an international tour called the 100th Anniversary tour. We are also trying to bring the Van Tour back to life.
Cycling tourism has reached a different dimension in Turkey. Together with Mehmet Cengiz, we prepared and presented a project to the ministry in 2018 in order to highlight bicycle tourism. The Minister made an incredible contribution to the project. There were no bicycle-friendly hotels in our country. Our Ministry of Sports and Ministry of Tourism carried out a joint study, and bicycle-friendly hotels in our country began to increase. The aim is not just to earn money, but the fact that our athletes train together with the athletes from abroad has brought both our manners and our level to a different dimension.
Project agreements were made with municipalities for the construction of bicycle paths. The number of bicycle paths in 2006 has reached an incomparable size in 2023. Of course, the sufficient number has not been reached yet, but at the point we have reached today, many municipalities are making great efforts in this regard.
Wherever this country has gone in basketball, cycling will go there with the television broadcast of the Presidential Cycling Tour and turning it professional. We have started to see the results of this in our country.
When we say we are magnifying the bike, we are really magnifying it. 1500 people got their start at Granfondo last year. All participants are businessmen. If we think of it as a pyramid, there are professionals at the top, but there is a very large audience at the bottom. People need to exercise and live healthy. A person who does a cycling sport cannot know unhappiness.
In the city of Paris, a part of the road was closed and a bicycle path was built despite the reaction. At the moment, the fastest vehicle is the bicycle. The number of cyclists in Istanbul is also very high. It’s not easy, but I hope this happens in our country as well.
There is a project that I would very much like to realize. We want to make the first sampling between Anamur and Alanya. When the tunnels are completed, it will be possible to ride a bicycle from Alanya to Anamur without seeing any traffic.
Although it was difficult, we managed to be elected to the Balkan Cycling Union. We are 12 countries and when we are united, you can rule 1 out of 4 of these elections. This reveals the power of the Balkans. Last year, we were elected to the Earth Federation’s commission. In this commission, you decide who will be helped and how much.
This year, there will be important organizations in Sakarya. We will do the European Cup and the World Cup. This excites us. Sakarya has revealed a great awareness about being a bicycle city. It has now become a city known to the cycling family. I recommend everyone to come and watch it in May.
Source: (BYZHA) – Beyaz News Agency
