Taaramae wins stage 3 at the Tour of Turkey

Image 1 of 31

Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis) took a powerful win on the first mountain stage of the Presidential Tour of Turkey on Tuesday. He attacked 3km from the summit of the tough final climb to Elmali with 21-year-old Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) on his wheel, before pulling away on the final metres to take the win and the race leader's turquoise jersey. Yates finished second, five seconds back and Taaramäe's teammate Romain Hardy took a small sprint for third.

Besides Estonian national championship wins, it was Taaramäe's first victory since the 2011 Vuelta a Espana. As well as claiming the leader's jersey from Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), he also leads the king of the mountains competition.

The 11.5km climb was marked by a flurry of attacks in the closing stages, but only Taaramäe's attack - a countermove to a probing attack by first Alexandr Dyachenko (Astana) and Merhawi Kudus (MTN-Qubeka) and then Marczynski (CCC) - had the teeth to stick in the headwind.

Taaramäe said, "I didn't want to attack too early because of the headwind. I thought everything would be decided in the last two kilometres. Then, 2.8km from the summit, Tomasz Marczynski attacked hard."

"Everybody was full gas, and I told myself it was time to go. I took a tight curve at full speed. Only a rider from Orica (Adam Yates) could take my wheel. I don't know how old he is, but I guess I have more experience than he has. My legs were hurting but so were his."

Yates, whose twin brother and teammate Simon, crashed after 65km and was taken to hospital with a suspected fractured collarbone, said he was Orica-GreenEdge's "plan B" in the aftermath of his brother's abandonment.

Adam Yates said, "It wasn't really the plan for me to go today - it was my brother but he's come off and broke his collarbone I think. I was plan B basically and the guys looked after me all day, especially Leigh Howard who did a hell of a good job keeping me out of the wind."

"Taaramäe was looking strong on the climb before, so I thought if he goes I'll have to go with him. He attacked with about 3km to go and it was full gas from there," he said.

After a four-man break of Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Nico Sijmens (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Davide Frattini (United Healthcare) and Christophe Le Mével had been caught under pressure from a combination of teams, MTN-Qhubeka came to the mountain with a plan to set up young Eritrean Merhawi Kudus, who finished fifth.

Linus Gerdemann (MTN-Qhubeka) set a gruelling pace on the lower slopes of the final climb. However the tough headwind helped keep the group - which contained all the main favourites including Davide Rebellin (CCC Polsat Polkowice), Juan Jose Cobo (Torku-Sekerspor) and the others - together.

Gerdemann said, "I didn't like the situation because we had so much headwind on the last climb. Otherwise I thought I could have done more - forced a bigger selection - but with a headwind, it's very difficult to do more."

In other competitions, Mattia Pozzo (Neri-Sotolli) took the lead in the Turkish Beauties competition After relinquishing the leader's turquoise jersey, Cavendish will wear the best sprinter's jersey for tomorrow's fourth stage from Fethiye to Marmaris.

How it unfolded

The peloton congregated in Finike, a perennial Presidential Tour of Turkey host town for the tough 185km stage to the summit at Elmali, used in the two previous editions of the race. The route ahead contained three categorised climbs into the Bey Mountains and culminated with the 11.5km climb to the pass, where local supporters massed throughout the afternoon to greet the riders.

The race got under way without Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida), who had suffered a rib injury in a crash at Paris-Roubaix and had not fully recovered.

The peloton stayed together well into the stage. Two intermediate lines fell under the wheels of the bunch. The first Turkish Beauties prime at 27km was won by Mattia Pozzo (Nero-Sottoli), ensuring he claimed the jersey at the finish. The peloton remained together over the first KOM climb, taken by Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana).

On the coarse, undulating road to the bottom of the second climb where the gruppetto formed and included turquoise jersey wearer, Cavendish, a five-man break prized itself free. The five riders were Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural), Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Nico Sijmens (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Frekalsi Debesay (MTN-Qhubeka) and Christophe Le Mével (CoFidis), who joined them later.

They built up a seven-minute lead on the lowers slopes of the day's second climb named after Rifat Çaliskan, winner of the inaugural Tour of Turkey in 1963.

Meanwhile back in the peloton 21-year-old Orica-GreenEdge rider Simon Yates crashed and injured his shoulder. He was taken to hospital with a suspected broken collarbone.

Back up the road, the breakaway group was re-ordered as Debasay dropped off the pace and a lone chaser Davide Frattini (United Healthcare) had caught on. Shortly after, Aramendia was also dropped and drifted back to the peloton which was being driven by the Turkish Torku-Sekerspor team for their leader Juan Jose Cobo, and, once Eritrean rider Debasay was back within the fold, MTN-Qhubeka for Merhawi Kudus.

The 50-strong peloton hit the bottom of the Elmali climb together. The peloton soon broke up under pressure from MTN-Qhubeka. Gerdamann played a key role in events, grinding up the mountain from 8km until 5km to go while Kudus sat in second or third position spinning a low gear.

When Gerdemann pulled over, a series of attacks further whittled the group from the back until Dyanchenko launched a move which Kudus followed. When the pair was caught moments later with about 3km to go, Taaramäe raced ahead with a stinging attack only Adam Yates could follow.

Working together, the pair quickly built an insurmountable 15-25 second lead that gave them a cushion against last ditch attacks from others including Kevin Seeldrayers (Wanty Group-Gobert).

Romain Hardy had enough left in the tank to take the sprint for third and cap a successful day for Cofidis.

Full Results