Tour of Turkey: Cavendish wins a third stage

Sprinter Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma QuickStep) continued his winning spree at the Tour of Turkey, cruising to a comfortable third win ahead of Maxim Richeze (Lampre) on stage 4, which was briefly neutralised because of wet, dangerous roads.

After delivering a "textbook" leadout to Cavendish in Marmaris, his teammate Mark Renshaw cruised to third. Meanwhile, Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis), riding behind his pace-setting team for most of the 125km stage, maintained his grip on the general classification. He is six seconds ahead of youngster Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) and Romain Hardy, his teammate, 38 seconds back.

After 30km on the slick descent off the first categorised climb, around 20 riders crashed. The peloton stopped to protest and race organisers neutralised the action to allow riders to get to the bottom safely. Andre Greipel, who returned to racing in Turkey after a shoulder injury, even threatened to abandon but changed his mind and rode on. There were no immediate abandons due to injury and racing resumed with 80km to go.

Speaking after the finish, Cavendish, who maintained his 100 percent record in sprint stages at this year's race, praised the organisers' decision to suspend action until the roads cleared.

"I was very happy with the win today, the team worked tremendously - they were with me the whole day," said Cavendish.

It wasn't an easy stage right from the beginning. During the first categorised climb, it went wet and the roads on the inland of Turkey it's like marble when its wet - it's incredible. Even going uphill round a corner the wheels were going."

"The organisers made a wise, wise decision to of neutralise the race - there were guys everywhere.

He explained that the peloton agreed to ride if the roads dried, and despite intermittent showers and a threat of rain in Marmaris, the roads remained dry and the stage was set for a competitive finish.

The day's five man break got away early and after 20km, Maxim Belkov (Katusha), Luis Mas (Caja Rural), Adam Phelan (Drapac) and Frederik Backaert (Wanty Groupe Gobert) and Andrea Fedi (Neri Sottoli) had more than 3m30s.

After the race was re-started, the quintet kept their advantage and despite some heavy work in the closing stages and a couple of stinging attacks by Mas, they were reabsorbed by the peloton - led by Lotto-Belisol - about 10km from the line.

Despite a tough final climb - which many thought could be a launchpad for a late attack - Omega Pharma-QuickStep kept control and piloted green-jersey wearing Cavendish to a comfortable win on the seaside promenade.

Cavendish said, "It was a textbook leadout if the sprinter doesn't have to do anything you know he's got an extraordinary team around him and they were incredible."

Taaramäe, wearing the leader's turquoise jersey he won on yesterday's tough mountain stage to Elmali, maintains his lead in the King of the Mountain competition, too, though its current caretaker on the road is Davide Frattini (United Healthcare).

Mattia Pozzo (Neri Sottoli) maintains his tenure of the Turkish Beauties white jersey.

Tomorrow the peloton will tackle stage 5, a lumpy 183km from Marmaris to Bodrum.

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