Greipel takes the final stage

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HTC-Columbia's Andre Greipel sealed his fifth stage victory on the final day of the Tour of Turkey, besting Lampre's Angelo Furlan and Kenny Van Hummel (Skil-Shimano) in yet another chaotic bunch sprint.

The German also confirmed the win in the points classification after Giovanni Visconti sat out the bunch sprint and rolled home to claim the overall victory for ISD-Neri. It was the first professional stage-race win for the Italian.

As with most of the stages, a futile breakaway took shape after 25 kilometres. This time the move included Ermanno Capelli (Footon-Servetto), Kalle Kriit (Cofidis), David Deroo (Skil-Shimano) and Bartlomiej Matysiak (CCC Polsat) who received the reinforcement of Moldovan national champion Oleg Berdos (De Rosa-Stac Plastic) at km28.

The ISD-Neri team of race leader Visconti made sure they kept the race under control, therefore the breakaway riders never got the opportunity to lead the race by more than 2.20. Eventually, HTC-Columbia took care of the chase with 35km to go in contrast to the previous stage when they let other teams – mainly Colnago-CSF – to do the job.

For the sake of the show, as the Tour of Turkey was broadcast two hours live worldwide, Capelli and Deroo insisted with 13km to go and tried to resist as much as they could to the return of the peloton. But within 10km to go, it was all together again, and all in place for another bunch sprint.

Fortunately, the drama that made the Tour of Turkey famous last year because of the accident involving Theo Bos and overall leader Daryl Impey didn't happen again.

Two of Impey's former Barloworld teammates were again escorting the race leader. "We've remained traumatised by that crash but our win with Visconti this year took all the fears away," said Diego Caccia while Paolo Longo Borghini added: "We didn't savour the win last year but this time around, it's a great one."

"Visconti himself asked me to bring him to the Tour of Turkey," ISD-Neri's directeur sportif Luca Scinto, who enjoyed the overall win which finally became a reality after four days of defending the Turquoise jersey.

The 27-year-old Sicilian based in Tuscany was full of praise for Turkey after receiving trophies, fresh oranges and bananas in Alanya. "When I'll go back to Italy, I'll tell my friends and family that I want to go back to Turkey, that says all," Visconti said with a large smile. "I've enjoyed the nice weather, the great landscapes and the warm welcome of the Turkish people, it's been a great week."

Scinto remarked nearby the final podium where Visconti stood together with runner up Tejay van Garderen and David Moncoutié: "Look at the teams we've beaten: HTC-Columbia and Cofidis, not bad for a team like ours, isn't it?," said the former domestique of Michele Bartoli who was known as "Il pitone" (the python) in his racing days. He keeps hoping for a last minute call for the ISD-Neri team at the Giro d'Italia.

Neo-pro Van Garderen coming of age was one of the revelations of the week. "It would have been ambitious if I had said that I was targeting the top 2 but I wanted to be high in this race," the rider from Montana admitted.

"It's a good stepping stone. It's been a good Tour for us with five stage wins, the points classification and second on GC. I've been getting closer and closer at stage races. I hope to get the top spot by the end of this year, maybe not at a Pro Tour race but in a 2.1."

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