Mareczko wins stage 5 of Tour of Turkey

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Jakub Mareczko of Southeast-Venezuela claimed his first stage victory in the Presidential Tour of Turkey. It came just one week before going to start his first Grand Tour, the Giro d’Italia, at the age of 22 [he’ll celebrate his birthday on the penultimate stage of the Tour of Turkey]. He out-sprinted André Greipel in Kemer while his teammate Manuel Belletti completed the podium. Spain’s Pello Bilbao of Caja Rural-RGA retained the overall lead ahead of the queen stage to Elmali.

“Yesterday we launched the sprint too early but today we got it right,” Mareczko observed. “I was helped by Belletti, who led me out. It’s great to win again this month after I did it in January [at the Tour de San Luis], February [at Le Tour de Langkawi] and March [at the Settimana Coppi e Bartali]. Except in Belgium from where I came back with a throat inflammation, I’ve performed at every race I took part in.”

Riccardo Stacchiotti (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Michal Podlaski (Verva-Activejet), Kaspars Sergis (Alpha Baltic), Peter Schulting (Parkhotel), Ahmet Akdilek (Torku) and Enrico Salvador (Unieuro) formed the long lasting breakaway of the day after they managed to escape just before the twentieth kilometre of racing. The peloton didn’t allow them to enjoy more than two and half minutes of an advantage, so another bunch gallop looked inevitable. Sergis was the first one to surrender with 45km to go.

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Schulting and Salvador forged on with 10km to go. The Dutchman continued solo until the whole bunch got back together again 3.5km before the finishing line. Italian continental team Unieuro seized the reins of the peloton before the most famous teams got organised for their lead out.

“My team did a really good job today,” Greipel said. “They timed it right. But racing against the wind wasn’t easy at all. The sprint happened to be too long. I lost the momentum a bit. Mareczko was strong and fast. I couldn’t go past him.”

“This is a good outcome,” Belletti echoed. “Well, first and third is more than good. We had planned that Mareczko would stay on my wheel before sprinting. It was a very convincing sprint by him. Our team rode at perfection today. We took our responsibilities from the start, and I completed the result with this third place. It’s a great satisfaction, as I came to Turkey in the unknown one month after breaking my scaphoid in Belgium. Now I’m focused on the second last stage finishing in Marmaris. I’ve won there before [in 2011], and I’d like to double up.”

Marmaris is the place where Mareczko will celebrate his 22nd birthday. “I have no experience of that finale because I pulled out during that stage last year”, the Polish-born sprinter recalled. “I know that it’s a difficult one because of the hill before riding down to town, but hopefully, I’ll be up there. I came to Turkey to shape up my form for the Giro where I hope for some result. A podium place would be great. It’s a big satisfaction to beat top sprinters like Greipel and [Sacha] Modolo today, but I can’t ask for too much at my first participation to the Giro. It’ll be more difficult than here with all the World Tour teams in contention.”

Stage 6 to Elmali will most probably designate the overall winner.

“We have been able to control the race without wasting too much energy,” race leader Bilbao explained. “With the top three positions in our camp, we can say that we are in a good position to keep the race lead tomorrow at least, so maybe I am more confident now that I was when I took the turquoise jersey on day 2. The team looks strong, and I think we can make a good race tomorrow. Lampre-Merida, Astana City, and CCC look like the most dangerous teams climbing, especially the Astana guy who is fourth now [Nikita Stalnov]. We have to keep him near all the time. I think we have a great climbing team, so we are hoping to race conservatively and let other teams work.”

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