Visconti makes it count in Pamukkale

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Giovanni Visconti (ISD-Neri) won stage four at the Tour of Turkey, the Italian's second straight victory, after outsprinting breakaway companions Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia) and David Moncoutié (Cofidis) in Pamukkale.

Gian-paolo Cheula (Footon Servetto) had attacked the seven-man break with three kilometres to go and nearly pulled off the stage victory, but was caught by a quartet of Visconti, Van Garderen, Moncoutié and Yukihiro Doi (Skil-Shimano) only 100 metres from the finish line.

Fellow breakaway rider Cristiano Salerno (De Rosa Stac Plastic) finished sixth at 33 seconds, not having the legs to go with the attacks in the slightly uphill finale, while Oscar Gatto (ISD-Neri) finished seventh at 2:46 after doing yeoman's work for Visconti to power the break.

André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) led the peloton across the line for eighth place at 4:28.

The seven riders from today's break now occupy the top seven spots on general classification with Visconti holding a 16-second lead over Van Garderen. Moncoutié moves up to third, 27 seconds behind Visconti.

Overnight race leader Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis), who started the stage with a one second lead over Visconti, finished 5:19 behind the Italian and surrendered the leader's jersey earned the previous day.

Early break goes from the gun

The race started with a grueling climb from the coastal town of Marmaris on the way to Mugla. Three riders attacked prior to the ascent: Yukihiro Doi (Skil-Shimano) and Philip Ludescher (Vorarlberg-Corratec) who were soon rejoined by Alberto Fernandez (Xacobeo-Galicia).

The ISD-Neri team started a spectacular move towards the top of that climb after only 36 kilometres of racing as Oscar Gatto and Paolo Longo Borghini went together in the chase of the three escapees, despite their 10 minute deficit.

The Italian teammates eventually made it across at km 63 but it created tension and many attacks in the peloton due to a battle opened between ISD-Neri and Cofidis whose top riders were separated by only a single second at the top of general classification. Interestingly, Giovanni Visconti and David Moncoutié marked each other and formed a counter-attack with Gian-Paolo Cheula (Footon-Servetto), Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia), Christian Salerno (De Rosa-Stac Plastic) and Federico Canuti (Colnago-CSF).

Seven of eleven form decisive escape

With 87 kilometres to go, the six chasers bridged to the leading quintet to form an 11-man breakaway. As the escapees had a four minute lead and it was slightly downhill towards the big town of Denizli and then the historical site of Pamukkale, it looked like the bunch would be able to absorb the breakaway prior to the finish. The ISD-Neri riders, however, never gave up as the front group was reduced to seven under the impetus of the Italian squad: Visconti, Gatto, Salerno, Cheula, Doi, Moncoutié and Van Garderen.

The peloton's pursuit was initially led by Cofidis and then the by the teams of the sprinters, in particular HTC-Columbia and Colnago-CSF, but their chase efforts did nothing to reduce the gap to the break.

"I was able to sit on because we had André Greipel behind and he had a good chance of winning the stage if our breakaway was brought back," Van Garderen said. "But Visconti and his team had a lot of motivation for taking the jersey. I needed to get a couple of seconds from him so I attacked but it didn't work."

The bulk of the work in the break was done by Gatto, Visconti, Salerno and Cheula as Van Garderen, Moncoutié and Doi remained at the back of the escape. The cohesion of the lead group came to an end in the closing kilometres as riders vied for the stage win. Cheula attacked with three kilometres to go and drew out Visconti, Van Garderen, Moncoutié and Doi in pursuit on the slightly uphill finishing stretch.

Cheula nearly pulled off the victory, but was swept up by the four pursuers at 100 metres to go with Visconti powering to his second consecutive victory and the overall race lead.

"Visconti is a good sprinter but the race isn't over," Van Garderen said. "We still have a really hard day tomorrow. If Visconti and his team are tired, we'll try to go for the overall win. If Moncoutié goes in the hills, people will have a hard time."

The Frenchman who is known for keeping a low profile didn't promise any big action. "The category 1 hill is too far (100km) from the finish," Moncoutié said. "Had it been an uphill finish, I would have tried to go for the overall win."

Visconti regretted Moncoutié's "lack of fair-play". "He could have taken some turns in the finale when he had clearly become the leader of his team during the stage," the Italian said. "It made no sense that he didn't cooperate. Never mind, this makes my win even more beautiful."

The duel between ISD-Neri and Cofidis was the kind of fight that brings passion into cycling. However, the French team isn't playing with equal weapons. "We're only six and we can't burn ourselves here because we have the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège after the Tour of Turkey," Moncoutié said. Rein Taaramäe lost the lead but it wasn't the end of the world for the French team.

"Now I'll give my best for winning the Tour of Turkey," Visconti said. "I can't guarantee that I'll succeed because I've never been a GC rider so far. It has become a goal now. It's a beautiful race."

The way ISD-Neri rides in Turkey might even provide some regret for the organisers of the Giro d'Italia to have left aside the team directed by Luca Scinto.

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