Greipel fastest in Finike

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André Greipel (Team HTC - Columbia) claimed his fourth win at the 2010 Tour of Turkey, outsprinting Italians Davide Cimolai (Liquigas-Doimo) and Manuel Belletti (Colnago - CSF Inox) in the bunch gallop at the conclusion of stage six.

Greipel's teammates spent the final 40 kilometres of stage six into Finike in desperate pursuit of a two man break containing Christophe Kern (Cofidis) and Frederik Wilmann (Skil-Shimano), the survivors of a five-man escape which had formed nine kilometres into the 194 kilometre stage.

The Category 1 climb at 67 kilometres to go shattered the peloton and, as a result, Greipel did not have his full lead-out train at his disposal to bring back the escapees. Nevertheless, his HTC-Columbia teammates steadily ate into the lead of Kern and Wilmann, dashing their hopes for a stage victory inside the final kilometre.

Race leader Giovanni Visconti (ISD-Neri) immediately counter-attacked in a bid to steal the stage but was swept up by Greipel at 200m, as the German jumped off the wheel of Belletti to earn his 10th victory of the season. Visconti narrowly missed out on grabbing bonus seconds to pad his lead as he finished fourth on the stage, just shy of the top three in which bonuses are awarded.

"To be honest I didn't think that today was going to end in a sprint, it was so hilly in the first part of the stage, and then the roads were really undulating in the last part along the coast," said Team HTC-Columbia sports director Jan Schaffrath. "Finally, though, we managed to bring the break back in the nick of time. The whole team, particularly the younger riders, did an exceptionally good job today.

"Getting that break back was a little bit like a game of poker. It was complicated to calculate because there were so many little climbs. But we got it right and André's got his fourth stage and tenth win of the season. He's having a great week of racing here."

General classification remains unchanged with two stages remaining as Visconti maintained his lead over Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia), who lost seven seconds on the day, and David Moncoutié (Cofidis), who lies 27 seconds in arrears.

Cofidis on the offensive

After a flurry of attacks to open the stage, a five-rider early break formed after nine kilometres. Included in the lead quintet were Vladimir Isaychev (Xacobeo Galicia), Christophe Kern (Cofidis), Frederik Wilmann (Skil-Shimano), Arkaitz Duran Aroca (Footon-Servetto) and Yukihiro Doi (Skil-Shimano).

Riding into a three-quarter headwind, the five leaders stretched their advantage to one minute after an hour of racing and then steadily increased their lead over the peloton. Doi suffered a mechanical and was dropped from the escape, but the remaining escapees pressed onwards to a 2:20 lead at 50 kilometres.

Isaychev led the break over the first of two KOMs at 78.7km, a second category ascent, as the break stretched the gap out to 4:30.

After a lengthy descent off the KOM summit, Cofidis went on the attack to try and put race leader Giovanni Visconti (ISD-Neri) under pressure. In advance of the Category 1 climb, with its summit at 117km, the French team sent Amael Moinard and Remi Pauriol up the road. The Cofidis pair were joined by Gian-Paolo Cheula (Footon-Servetto), fourth on GC, Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas-Doimo), Hubert Schwab (Vorarlberg-Corratec), Christiano Salerno (De Rosa-Stac Plastic) and Skil-Shimano teammates Dominique Cornu and Yukihiro Doi.

Behind the eight chasers another group formed containing the top three GC riders: Visconti, Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia) and David Moncoutié (Cofidis), plus Gert Dockx (HTC-Columbia) and Alberto Fernandez Sainz (Xacobeo Galicia). Visconti was now isolated as he marked the two riders closest to him overall.

At the head of the race, the break split in two on the climb with Kern and Wilmann going clear of Isaychev and Duran. Kern led Wilmann over the KOM line with a lead of 4:53 over the Visconti group. Kern started the day 5:00 down on GC to Visconti and began to flirt with leadership virtuel.

With 56 kilometres remaining to the finish in Finike, the Pauriol and Visconti groups joined together as only Kern and Wilmann remained off the front.

The lead duo pushed their lead out to 5:20 with 50 kilometres remaining as four ISD-Neri riders set tempo in the 20-rider chase group to defend Visconti's lead. The chase group swelled slightly in numbers and with 40 kilometres to go ISD-Neri surrendered pace-making duties to HTC-Columbia, whose sprinter André Greipel made his way back to the main group.

Under the impetus of Team HTC-Columbia the leading duo's lead steadily decreased. As the pair no longer posed a GC threat, their mission became one of breaking the Greipel/Visconti monopoly on stage wins at the Tour of Turkey.

At 15-to-go the Frenchman and Norwegian's lead dipped below two minutes and further decreased to 1:30 with 10 kilometres remaining. Kern and Willman, off the front for nearly the entire stage, desperately tried to hold the chasing peloton at bay as they maintained a tenuous 26-second lead with three kilometres to race. Despite not having its full lead-out contingent present in the chase group, HTC-Columbia still had the horsepower to dash the hopes of the escapees inside the flamme rouge.

Just as the juncture took place at a 180-degree turn 800m from the finish, Visconti attacked for a bid at another stage win, but Greipel jumped off the wheel of Manuel Belletti (Colnago-CSF Inox) at 200m to go to pass Visconti and claim his fourth stage win in the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey.