Berhane wins queen stage at Tour of Turkey

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Natnael Berhane (Team Europcar) won the Tour of Turkey stage 3 mountain finish to Elmali with a powerful surge to the line after leading the attack that decided the queen stage of the race. The Eritrean rider beat Kevin Seeldraeyers (Astana) and Mustafa Sayar (Torku Sekerspor) by six seconds. He is also the new race leader of the eight-stage race.

Berhane is the current African road race and time trial champion, but this was his first victory outside of Africa. Today's win made him the first black African cyclist to win at the HC level.

"This is enormous," Berhane said. "It was a very big stage. I didn't expect to win because I didn't know how well I could climb up here. This is my first year as a pro and my first participation to the Tour of Turkey. It was my dream to win such a race, that's why I was in tears when I crossed the line. It was the best stage to win here!"

Berhane made the most of the strong ride of his teammate Björn Thurau, who got away after 30km of racing along with Clément Koretzky (Bretagne-Séché), Jaroslaw Marycz (CCC Polsat), Mauro Finetto (Vini Fantini) and Sergey Grechyn (Torku Seker Spor). The group was later reinforced by US national champion Tim Duggan (Saxo-Tinkoff), who was returning to competition with determination after a major injury he sustained at the Santos Tour Down Under in January. He led the way up the Saksaganlibeli climb dedicated to former Turkish Olympic rider Rifat Caliskan.

In the long stretch toward Elmali, only Thurau, Finetto and Grechyn were left to tackle the final climb in the front. While Grechyn deservedly took the last intermediate sprint of the stage in Elmali after spending all day at the front, Berhane's teammate Thurau was by far the busiest of the three escapees as they approached the climb with a 1:40 lead over the chasing pack, led by team Bretagne-Séché.

With 11km to go, Thurau, tired of being the only pacesetter, moved and left Finetto and Grechyn to make their way. But the son of former champion Dietrich Thurau, who won the 1979 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, could only keep a 20-second lead over the bunch, at this time led by the riders of the other Breton team, Sojasun.

The gap melted in the sun with each turn, and the break ended seven kilometres from the line. Serge Pauwels (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was next to attack, and he was followed by Seeldrayers and Berhane.

On the national holiday dedicated to all the children of the world 93 years after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk created the Parliament and therefore the Turkish democracy, Turkey got very enthusiastic about Sayar, who made the break, doing most of the work in an effort to avoid being caught by the chasers, among which Australia's Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge) looked strong.

"Today, I felt good from the start," Sayar said. "We are three climbers in the team, and I told Andrey Mizourov and David De La Fuente that they could work for me. I'm not fast enough for sprinting, so it's no surprise that I got beat for the stage win but finishing third up here is really good for me. It's my career's best result so far."

Berhane showed strength and elegance in the steep finale while Seeldrayers said, "It's no shame to lose against such a strong rider. I didn't expect the last three kilometres to be so hard. Now I believe Berhane will win the overall. Where could we attack him? We'll use every possibility."

"To win such a stage is wonderful," said Behane. "Europcar is a big team, and I hope to become a rider like Thomas Voeckler or Pierre Rolland. I was looking at these guys on TV and today, even in Africa, people have been able to see me win on TV."

One month after the stage win of his former friend from the UCI World Cycling Center, Ethiopia's Tsgabu Grmay at the Tour de Taiwan, Berhane confirmed that cyclists from all continents can realistically hope for major success.