Tour of Turkey: Greipel wins stage 3 in Konya

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A race in the crosswinds of central Anatolia has completely reshuffled the overall classification of the 52nd Presidential Tour of Turkey, with stage 2 winner Pello Bilbao of Caja Rural-RGA taking the turquoise jersey over from Lampre-Merida’s Przemyslaw Niemiec whilst André Greipel won in Konya after his Lotto-Soudal team ruled the race in the echelons.

“It was an advantage to know how to ride in the echelons with such a strong wind all day," Greipel commented after taking his 11th stage victory at the TUR to increase his record in the modern history of the Turkish event he’s been faithful to since 2010. “With the rain starting right at the beginning of the race, the peloton was a bit of a mess. Adam Hansen and I got a bit stuck behind when the fights begun, so our team-mates waited a bit and we went again. It was a nice team effort. I’m proud of my team-mates.”

The Presidential Tour of Turkey going for the first time to Konya, a bunch sprint and a Greipel win were expected after two very eventful first stages but windy and rainy conditions just after the start was given at Aksaray enabled Lotto-Soudal to contest stage 3 like a Belgian classic. All of their eight riders made a decisive echelon in the first 10 kilometers of racing.

The front group of 38 riders was then reduced to 24: Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida), Stig Broeckx, Gert Dockx, Frederik Frison, André Greipel, Adam Hansen, Greg Henderson, Jelle Wallays, Kris Boeckmans (Lotto-Soudal), Pello Bilbao, José Gonçalves, David Arroyo, Lluis Mas (Caja Rural-RGA), Mikel Aristi (Delko Marseille), Riccardo Stacchiotti (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Enrique Sanz (Southeast), Alberto Cecchin, Nicola Toffali (Roth), Adrian Banaszek (Verva), Anton Kuzmin, Nikita Stalnov, Maxim Satlikov (Astana City), Massimo Graziato (Parkhotel Valkenburg), Matteo Malucelli (Unieuro).

The main peloton maintained their deficit around 1:30 for a long time but they gave up at half way into the race. But race leader Niemiec was even further behind in a third group that kept losing time. With 50km to go, the second group was timed at 5:50 and the third one at 14 minutes.

Twenty-six km before the end, Lotto-Soudal rode their adversaries in the gutter again. Only Cecchin and Toffali from Roth managed to accompany six riders from the Belgian team, namely Broeckx, Dockx, Frison, Greipel, Henderson and Boeckmans. “We stayed near Lotto-Soudal because we could feel that sooner or later they’d create one more echelon," Cecchin said. “We were ready. Our stage result couldn’t be any better than this against Greipel and such a strong Lotto-Soudal team.”

Boeckmans was the last man to make that final move. “For me, it was close," commented the Belgian who had a life-threatening accident at the Vuelta a España last year. “A baby takes nine months to gestate. My rebirth also took nine months.”

The presence of the two Italians from Roth prevented Lotto-Soudal from giving the win to their Flemish rider, who miraculously came back racing this Spring. “I have won a lot of races in the past," Greipel said. “It’s a shame that only one of us can be declared the winner today. I tried to convince the sport director [Mario Aerts] to let somebody else win but he decided to stick to the plan and the plan this morning was for me to win. It’s been a long way for Kris to come back to the condition he has now.”

Interestingly, the biggest beneficiaries of the day are the riders from Caja Rural-RGA, who followed Lotto-Soudal in their first move but couldn’t do it again with 26km to go. By limiting the loss, three of them have moved into the top three positions in the overall ranking with Bilbao preceding Gonçalves by five seconds and Arroyo by thirteen seconds. “We did 160km full gas," noted Bilbao, who was hoping for a day to recover from the unexpected efforts of the first two days.

“We thought it could be a dangerous stage with the bad weather that was forecasted. But we didn’t expect a stage like that! What Lotto-Soudal has done is absolutely impressive. Now we’ll have to control the race. I hope the next two days won’t deliver another surprise but looking at today’s stage, we can’t say the battle for GC is over. Anything can happen till the last day.”

“If it’s the same kind of racing every day, it’s difficult to think of the general classification even if we’re so well placed as a team now," echoed Mas, who was still under shock after experiencing such a difficult racing like the whole peloton of the Tour of Turkey.

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