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.
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.
