Greipel wins stage 4 of the Tour of Turkey

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Neo-pro Natnael Berhane (Europcar) has discovered the difficulty of defending a leader's jersey on challenging terrain, against the wind and a high-ranked breakaway rider. But he managed to remain among the forty riders – out of 184 starters – who sprinted for victory in Marmaris. In that context, André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) has scored his eighth stage victory in four participations at the Presidential Tour of Turkey. It was an emotional one for Greipel as he lost his number 1 fan on Sunday morning with the passing of his grandmother.

"I spoke a lot with my family at home," Greipel said. "They supported me to stay here for racing. It's also good for me. It's an important race for my build-up for the Tour de France. I promised my dad that I'd win a stage for my grandmother. I'm happy I could make it."

The early part of the stage was undulating and favourable for a breakaway to go soon after leaving Göcek and the impressive yachts docked in its harbor under the beautiful sun of the Lykia province. As it happened 12 riders went clear from the gun: Michael Hepburn (Orica-GreenEdge), Renaud Dion (Bretagne-Séché), Anthony Delaplace (Sojasun), Nico Sijmens (Cofidis), Pierpaolo De Negri (Vini Fantini), Gerald Ciolek (MTN-Qhubeka), Nikolay Mikhailov and Adrian Kurek (CCC Polsat), Mikhail Ignatiev and Timofei Kritskiy (Katusha), Sergey Grechyn (Torku Sekerspor) and the highest ranked rider on GC, Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) who was 21st at 1:46 while no other rider represented a danger for Berhane and his rivals.

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Grechyn took advantage of the only categorized climb of the day for taking over the lead of the KOM competition from Italy's Mauro Finetto (Vini Fantini). Hansen's presence at the front didn't give the breakaway much chance of success, therefore Delaplace attacked several times with a hint of panache but Ignatiev was the last one to surrender with 20km to go.

The Russian, who was seen on TV being stung by a wasp, described his day at the front. "We've asked Hansen to go back to the bunch but he didn't want to," said Ignatiev, the 2004 Olympic points champion. "There was not much I could do alone for winning the stage. Now at least I'm leading the Turkish Beauty sprints, it means that I'm the most beautiful cyclist!"

Turkish climber Mustafa Sayar (Torku Sekerspor) and Kevin Seeldraeyers (Astana), respectively third and second on GC, attacked on the last climb in hopes of putting race leader Berhane under pressure. But sprinters in the making became ambitious in the absence of the likes of Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) and brought the escapees back on the downhill run to the finish.

The sprint finish was a formality for Greipel. "I'm surprised with the condition I have," the 'Gorilla' noted. "I had a week off after Paris-Roubaix and only a few training rides. But I always do it like this and I always do well here in Turkey. A victory is a victory.

I knew this climb for the past years and it helped me. I knew I could stay in the front group. The team supported me. We had Adam Hansen in the breakaway so we didn't have to chase it down. I'll try to return to Turkey as much as I can especially as the race is getting bigger every year. The roads are getting better, there's always something improving in the organization."

A new German sprinter was revealed with Nikias Arndt of Argos-Shimano finishing second. "For sure, this is a good result for me," Arndt said. "I knew it was my stage but it happened to be harder than I expected. In the middle of the stage I thought ‘f---, this is way too hard' but in the last two climbs, I was feeling really good. I'm not really a sprinter. If you want to compare me with Marcel [Kittel] or André [Greipel], I don't have any possibility to beat them. I'm more a sprinter like John Degenkolb who comes out when the terrain is hard."

A year ago Mark Renshaw was the winner in Marmaris but he had to abandon the race with a broken collarbone after the big crash in the finale of stage 2 in Antalya and another rookie, Moreno Hofland, assumed the sprinting responsibilities for Blanco. "We still want to do well and this is a great result for me as a first year pro, just behind a champion like Greipel," said the Dutchman who finished third.

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