Sayar solos to victory on Selçuk summit finish

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Mustafa Sayar (Torku Sekerspor) won stage six to Selçuk and set up overall success by going clear alone on the testing climb to the finish.

The Turkish rider powered clear in the big ring, finishing ahead of Cofidis duo Yohann Bagot and Nicolas Edet.

Eritrea's Natnael Berhane (Team Europcar) finished 43 seconds down and so lost the overall race lead to Sayar. Berhane is now 41 seconds down overall, with Bagot third at 44 seconds.

This was the first stage win by a Turkish rider since the race was upgraded to the big leagues of cycling (in the 2.1 category and now 2.HC) in 2008. It happened at the end of a grueling 6km climb leading to the house where the Virgin Mary is thought to have spent her last days and it was far more than Sayar could have prayed for.

“I’m very happy," he said. “Thank you very much to my whole team and our sponsor Torku. This is my home race. I enjoy so much to achieve this in my country and in a HC race with such a strong field.”

The 25-year-old dethroned race leader Natnael Behane of Europcar. While Cofidis Frenchmen Yoann Bagot and Nicolas Edet were second and third at the top, Sayar now holds a comfortable 41-second lead over Berhane in the GC with two short and flat stages remaining.

Several attacks took place from the start, the most significant involving fourteen riders including Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) and Turkish Beauties leader Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) at km 25.

“There were too many strong riders in that front group," the Russian explained. “The cooperation was not good.”

Past the 40km mark, Cristian Delle Stelle (Bardiani Valvole-CSF) and Aldo Ino Ilesic (Unitedhealthcare) decided to spend the day on their own at the front as they embarked on a long trek in the sun. The bunch, tired by the efforts of the previous days, were happy to let them go as neither was a threat in the GC and they held a maximum lead of 9:50 after 65km.

At the front of the peloton, Berhane’s Europcar and French team Sojasun imposed a leisurely tempo even though the gap was gradually cut down to a stable seven minutes.

Delle Stelle profited from their 110 kilometres away to collect the Turkish Beauties laurels of the day. The pack was obviously content with saving strength for the final climb to seal the fate of this edition of the Tour of Turkey. Another race began with 30km to go. Astana, Cofidis, Sojasun and, closer to the final climb, Team Colombia plus Orica-GreenEdge raised the tempo while approaching the picturesque winding road leading to the beautiful ancient site of Ephesus.

Astana took the reins for Kevin Seeldraeyers, second on GC entering today's stage. King of the Mountains Sergey Grechyn took over, paving the way for a move by Sayar while Berhane seemed to control the action at that stage. But while Nicolas Edet attacked first, three kilometres from the top, Sayar’s acceleration was far more harmful as it blew what remained of the peloton to pieces. Bagot proved himself to being the best climber after the unexpected Turkish rider.

“I came here with the aim of finishing in the top 3 overall”, Bagot said.

“Nicolas and I both had a hard time on the first uphill finish on Tuesday but in the past two days, I had good legs and today as well. I’ve got no regret. I’ve given everything.”

“We had seen that the Torku riders were very strong”, Edet echoed. “It’s no shame to be beaten by someone stronger. I anticipated as I knew there was a flattish section at half way into the final climb. There was no way I could follow Sayar when he passed me. On Tuesday, we suffered the first heat of the season and the first efforts in the mountains. But since Wednesday, we have given some dynamics to the race.”

The last two stages don’t seem favourable for Berhane or the Cofidis team to reverse the situation. Sayar seems very close to a home triumph in Istanbul on Sunday.