Turkey’s flagship cycling event, the 57th Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye, will be a milestone as it embraces new technology to promote the race and host country around the world.

A one-of-a-kind route that crosses continents, with fierce competition between world-famous cyclists, backdropped by Turkey’s historical riches and natural splendors, the tour will display the country in the best light possible.

Cyclists will cover 1,303 kilometers (810 miles) in eight days during this massive open-air event, which has set "Respect for History and Nature" as this year's motto.

Lotto Soudal's Australian rider Caleb Ewan won the 207-kilometer first stage of the 57th Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye on Sunday.

Ewan, a member of the Belgium-based team, finished in 4 hours, 38 minutes and 5 seconds to claim his win. While Jasper Philipsen of Belgian team Alpecin-Fenix came in second and Kaden Groves of Australia’s BikeExchange-Jayco was third.

The 158-kilometer second stage between Selçuk (Efes)-Alaçatı was held Monday.

Besides the racing, the 57th Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye will break ground as it embraces technology to become one of the first sports events to issue digital prizes, in the form of NFTs.

There will be three different formats of the non-fungible tokens, namely stages, jerseys and cups. Besides being awarded to the winners, a limited number of these NFTs will go on sale on a digital marketplace and the buyers will be given special rights.

The NFT project will be supported by Turkey’s leading platform for printed and digital cards, Mythos Cards.