Global Riders to Watch: South Aegean Tour 2022

A brand new race on the calendar with an intriguing and diverse start list. The South Aegean Tour in Greece is part of the Rhodes International Cycling Events over the next couple of weeks. This is a break-down of some of the riders to watch out for over the weekend from a diverse set of nations. We begin with a few talented Greek riders.

Polychronis Tzortzakis

33, Greece, Talos Abel Lines

The big rouler is back in action after a brilliant Saudi Tour. He was in the breakaway for 4 out of the 5 stages in the Middle East, only just missing out on the Sprints jersey. Pol said that he was undercooked going into that race and used it as training. He should now be flying then!

Tzortzakis will be a big factor in this race. He might not be able to go with the climbers when it goes uphill, but expect him to be very active.

Georgios Bouglaś

31, Greece, Greece National Team

Tzortzakis may be active in the service of his team-mate, Georgios Bouglaś.  Bouglaś has to be one of the big favourites for the sprint on stage one, stage two is right on his limit though.

Georgios has started the season really well with three top-10s in Turkey, including 4th at last week's GP Gazipasa. His form is growing nicely and with a strong team behind him, he could pull off a nice result this weekend.

Nikolaos Drakos

19, Greece, Greece National Team

Drakos may be a new name for some, but he is a rider with a big future ahead of him. He's the future of cycling in Greece.

Last year, Nikolaos rode as a trainee with the now defunct SEG Racing Academy. This will have been a great experience for him and he will have learnt a lot. He got to ride some of the biggest U23 races. His best result last season was 12th in the Omloop van Valkenswaard, won by Stan van Tricht. It's a shame he didn't manage to get on another team for 2022.

This is a big opportunity for Nikolaos to show his talent.

Charalampos Kastrantas

30, Greece, Aeolos of Athens Cycling Team

Another talented Greek rider who is usually found riding with the Kuwait Pro Cycling Team. Kastrantas enjoys riding at home, he won the big national race, Hydrama Tour, last year ahead of Bouglas and Iliadis among others.

His biggest achievement so far is winning the Tour of Kosovo in 2019, taking all three stages. He's also been up there in Langkawi and Ronde de l'Oise in previous seasons. He's a good rider who could have ridden at a higher level in his career.

He's also in good form, having won the Greece Cup Amfissa a couple of weeks ago.

Ludwig Fagerström

19, Sweden, Sweden Cycling Academy

Great to see the Sweden Cycling Academy at this race. They bring a mixture of U23 and older riders to this race. Ludwig Fagerström is probably the best of the younger riders. Sweden have been going through a few barren years in the professional ranks - Tobias Ludvigsson is their only WT rider - it's good to see some young talent being developed.

Fagerström is a solid second-year under 23 rider. He has had limited experience riding outside of Sweden but put in a solid showing at the Carpathian Race last year.

This will be a big learning race for him and the other Swedish youngsters here.

Ahmed Naser

21, Bahrain, Bahrain Cycling Academy

Ahmed Naser is probably the strongest rider from Bahrain - arguably stronger than Ahmed Madan who rides for the World Tour team. He had a solid start to the season at the Tour of Sharjah, taking 23rd on the final stage. He supported his team-mate to 2nd on GC.

Naser is continuing to build his experience in these races. He seems to be a decent rider on the flats and will hope to contribute to his team on the first stage.

Jaakko Sillankorva

21, Finland, X Speed United Continental

Jaakko Sillankorva was a dominant force in the national scene in Finland last year, winning 6 races. It would be great to see him now begin to take that winning form with him as he races more outside of Finland.

A talented sprinter, it would be great to see him get an opportunity to sprint for himself on stage one. It would be very interesting to see him go up against the likes of Kubiš and Bouglas.