Tour of Turkey: Cavendish strikes again

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Mark Cavendish made it two from two at the Tour of Turkey on Monday with a long range sprint in the hotel town of Kemer that also maintained his tenure in the leader's turquoise jersey for the second day.

The Omega Pharma-QuickStep rider beat Francesco Chicchi (Neri-Sottoli) and Niccolò Bonifazio (Lampre-Merida) on the slightly uphill headwind sprint after a fast and furious 175km stage.

Following the race Cavendish praised his teammates who kept control of the early five-man break which included Ahmet Orken, (Torku Sekerspor), Pawel Charucki (CCC Polsat Polkowice), Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF), Martijn Verschoor (Novo Nordisk) and Mattia Pozzo (Neri-Sottoli).

"Today it was a harder sprint," Cavendish said in the press conference. "It was slightly uphill, it was a headwind and it was big roads and it's easy to get swamped, but Omega Pharma-Quickstep did an incredible job in the final - absolutely textbook. I'm super happy today. I couldn't have done it without them."

The result means Cavendish still leads the overall classification. Bonifazio has jumped from fourth to second on the overall and Cannondale sprinter Elia Viviani now sits third. Both have the same time as Cavendish but he leads due to his two victories.

Like on Sunday's opening stage, Omega Pharma-QuickStep were assisted in its efforts to lead the peloton by other sprinter-heavy teams Belkin, Cannondale and Lotto Belisol. And it was Belkin who mounted the strongest challenge to the OPQS domination in the finale. They surged up the outside in the final 500m but a chain slip on Theo Bos' bike stymied his sprint and he finished eighth.

Tuesdays Stage three will be the first summit finish of the race and so Cavendish is resigned to passing on leadership.

"It's been a tough couple of days for the guys...and we'll try and get through tomorrow as best as possible but there's no way I can even try and defend the leader's jersey," he conceded.

How it unfolded

Thunder, lightning and a deluge greeted riders at the stage two start in Alanya. However, as the race convoy rolled out before midday, the rain ended abruptly and the peloton was soon riding rapidly up the coast assisted by a strong cross-tailwind. The bunch covered more than 49km in the first hour and had covered 94km of the 175km stage after the second hour.

A break of five had escaped early in the race. For the second day running, a Turkish rider, Ahmet Orken, (Torku Sekerspor), made the break. He was joined by Pawel Charucki (CCC Polsat Polkowice), Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF), Martijn Verschoor (Novo Nordisk) and Mattia Pozzo (Neri-Sottoli). The quintet would take the lion's share of intermediate competition points. Pozzo crossed the line in the first Turkish Beauties competition first ensuring he joined Frederique Robert (Wanty Group-Gobert) at the head of the competition. Robert however retains the jersey. Pozzo also took out the first two intermediate sprints to move himself up in the competition and he now sits in seventh place.

With 45km to go the peloton had the break firmly within its sights and the CCC Polsat Polkowice rider Pauwel Charucki decided to cap his efforts and drifted back into the peloton - perhaps to save energy in support of team leader Davide Rebellin who will have plans for a strong finish on Tuesday's mountain stage.

However the peloton refused to annul the break's efforts until there were just 16km to race. With the junction made, the black and white Omega Pharma-Quickstep riders took the race by the scuff of the neck.

The Czech 21-year-old Vakoc played a big part in keep race on OPQS control until five kilometres to go. Gianni Meersman maintained an unrelenting pace until the outskirts of Kemer and picked up the final intermediate sprint along the way. Then Iljo Keisse - a previous Tour of Turkey stage winner in 2012 - took over and guided the peloton into Kemer. Veteran rider Alessandro Petacchi and finally Mark Renshaw piloted Cavendish with minimal trouble into the last 200m, where, with an unbeatable burst of speed, he claimed the win by more than a bike length.

Stage three of the Tour of Turkey heads inland on Tuesday for the mountain stage finish at Elmari, which has been used in the previous two editions of the race. As the queen stage, it is also likely to define the overall classification.

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