Keisse wins dramatic stage 7 at Tour of Turkey

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Iljo Keisse (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) won a dramatic stage 7 at the 2012 Tour of Turkey in the city of Izmir, surviving a crash on the final bend with 1km to go.

Keisse attacked his six breakaway companions 6km from the finish and held a 40-second lead over a charging peloton into the last turn when disaster struck. While gingerly making his way alone around the sharp bend, nonetheless Keisse's front wheel slid out sending the 29-year-old Belgian to the tarmac. The picture of calm, Keisse picked himself up off the pavement, put his chain back on and sped onwards down the final straight to the finish.

All of the Belgian's breakaway companions were swept up inside the flamme rouge, but Keisse managed to just hold off the surging pack led by Marcel Kittel and Alessandro Petacchi to secure the biggest victory of his career and continue his team's excellent run of form in 2012.

"I'm over the moon about this victory," Keisse said. "Here in Turkey my condition is improving day by day. Every day I was a little bit better. Also yesterday I tried to get in the breakaway without luck. Today I chose the right move. The guys in the break were really motivated. In the final I felt strong. I knew that If I kept going on it was possible to arrive until the finish."

Bulgaria's Ivailo Gabrovski (Konya Torku Seker Spor) remains at the top of the general classification, 1:33 up on second-placed Alexandr Dyachenko (Astana) and 1:38 ahead of Danail Andonov Petrov (Caja Rural).

The Tour of Turkey concludes on Sunday with a 121km stage in Istanbul.