Tour of Turkey: Cavendish wins stage 1

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Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma- QuickStep) won the first stage of the 50th Presidential Tour of Turkey, beating Elia Viviani (Cannondale) and Theo Bos (Team Belkin) into second and third in the coastal resort of Alanya.

It was the Manx rider's first race in a month after illness and his debut appearance at the eight-day stage race. He darted around the wheel of Team Belkin’s Graeme Brown and rode into a light headwind on the right hand side of the road at the end of the 141km stage. He had a bike length to spare and, as well is leading the sprint competition, secured the general classification leader’s turquoise jersey. He’s likely to hold it until the summit finish at Elmari on stage 3.

The win capped a stage in which his Omega Pharma-QuickStep team, Team Belkin and Lotto-Belisol had taken responsibility for controlling the race.

Second-placed Bos was missing from the podium ceremony after a collision with a car that stopped suddenly just after the finish line. The injury is not thought to be serious and he is expected to start stage 2.

Marc de Maar (United Healthcare) secured the King of the Mountains jersey after cresting the stages only categorised climb at Tirmanis as part of a four-man break that was swallowed up with 35km to race. The junction with the quartet allowed Frederique Robert (Wanty Groupe-Gobert) to sprint out of the pack and claim the Turkish Beauties jersey.

In the press conference afterwards, Cavendish said he wasn’t sure where his form would lie after a month away from racing but was “psyched” to be in Turkey and sprinting for the win.

He said: "I knew I wouldn't be in bad condition…and I'd been sprinting at home but it’s different in races and I was happy with it.

"We had to go a bit early, we've still got some young guys who are learning, they’re committed 100 percent but it’s easy to get carried away and we were left with less men that we would have liked. Altogether I'm really happy with today’s ride,' he added.

Despite appearing isolated right at the end of the race, Cavendish praised his team for sheltering him deep into the final from where he step-laddered up the wheels of rivals before unleashing his sprint.

While the Presidential Tour of Turkey is renowned for attracting the sprinters, Andre Greipel finished in the bunch after playing a supporting role. He was making his own return from injury after crashing hard at Gent-Wevelgem. Another key sprinter, Andrea Guardini (Astana) finished ninth.

At the finishing ceremony, Cavendish was given a massive bunch of bananas as a prize – a tribute from the big banana-growing region around Alanya. However after the race, Cavendish admitted he didn’t like bananas.

Tomorrow’s 175km stage 2 starts in Alanya and finished in Kemer, probably in another bunch sprint.

How it unfolded

The 50th Presidential Tour of Turkey got underway in the resort city of Alanya, on Turkey’s Southern Mediterranean coast with a 141km stage along the broad dual carriageway roads. The 154-strong peloton was missing the Team Colombia squad because the riders’ passports were snared up an a bureaucratic issue as the team tried to get visas for the Giro d’Italia start in Belfast, Northern Ireland in two weeks.

Nevertheless, under sunny skies, a four-man break went early on the short 12.9km starting lap. With 15km raced the quartet - Martin Wesemann (MTN-Qhubeka), Gijs Van Hoecke (Topsport-Vlaanderen), Marc de Maar (United Healthcare) and Turkish rider Mirac Kal (Torku Sekerspor) – had stretched their lead to almost five minutes. It was all the slack the peloton, marshalled by Omega-Pharma-QuickStep, Lotto-Belisol and Team Belkin, would tolerate; for the body of the short stage, two to three minutes was all the adventurers were allowed.

On the approach to the stage’s only categorised KOM summit at Tirmiris, it was Dutch Antilles’ rider, De Maar, who opened hostilities early and ensured that back in Alanya he would have the first King of the Mountains jersey to pull on for his efforts. He was followed over the line by his break comrades Van Hoeck, Weseman and Kal.

Wesemann immediately launched an attack on the broad descent, but 5km later amid the region’s gleaming fruit growing glass houses, he put the lid on his efforts and recovered for the intermediate sprint, which he mopped up with Kal, De Maar, and Van Hoecke settled in his wheel.

With 55km to go, Lotto-Belisol briefly massed on the front – with returning from injury Andre Greipel playing his part in the pursuit – to dramatically reduce the gap. Such was the ferocity of the chase it threatened to split the peloton, but the Belgian outfit eased up when the gap to the leaders hit 30 seconds. A procession towards a sprint looked inevitable.

The peloton made the junction with the doomed break just before the start/finish banner for the first of two remaining laps. It allowed Frederique Robert (Wanty Groupe-Gobert) to snap up the first Turkish Beauties jersey ahead of Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEdge).

Halfway around the circuit Mirko Tedeschi (Neri Sottoli) launched a lone break and quickly built up a lead approaching 20 seconds. It last 10km before the fast moving peloton reabsorbed him into its ranks.

On the final lap the inevitable jockeying for position began, with Omega Pharma-QuickStep, Cannondale, and briefly, Australian ProContinental outfit Drapac Cycling setting up rival sprint trains at the head of the peloton. Meanwhile Lotto-Belisol, led by Greipel massed at the back before the German national champion dragged the team around the outside to the front.

However a mid-peloton crash inside 2km disrupted the group. Despite the pile up, the main sprinters emerged to battle for the stage win, with Cavendish taking shelter in the wheels before unleashing his sprint 200m or so from the line. Viviani and Bos followed him over, for a podium which reflects both the stage standings and the general classification.

The first big – and likely defining – shake-up of the GC is likely to occur on stage 3 and the 10km summit finish at Elmari.

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