Yates secures overall success at Tour of Turkey

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British first year professional Adam Yates claimed his first stage race victory of his career and showed his huge potential for the future at the Tour of Turkey just five months into his career with the Australian Orica-GreenEdge.

Yates finished comfortably in the peloton on the final circuit stage in Istanbul, as Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) completed a perfect lead out from his sprint train to take an emphatic stage victory. It was his fourth of the race which also consolidated his lead in the green jersey competition. Cavendish won the 121km stage ahead of Elia Viviani (Cannondale) and Andrea Guardini (Astana).

Adam Yates celebrated overall victory at the Tour of Turkey Orica-GreenEdge teammates and then pulled on the winner's turquoise jersey.

"It was pretty stressful and the race is never over until it’s over. Obviously I only had a one second advantage and if anything happened and say if I had punctured or crashed with four or five kilometres to go it’s over," he said.

"It's always pretty stressful but it’s been a good race and hopefully I’ll be back next year."

The 21-year-old sowed the seeds of victory on the race’s two summit finishes on stage three and six. On stage three with a final 11.5km climb to Elmali, Yates followed an attack by a resurgent Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) with three kilometres to go.

Though Yates conceded six seconds at the line, it put him striking distance of the Estonian. On Stage six after a rapid ascent up the five-kilometre climb to the House of the Virgin Mary near Ephesus, Yates attacked with one kilometre to go and it was Taaramae who was distanced by a crucial seven seconds to give Yates the turquoise jersey with two stages to go. His Orica-GreenEdge teammates did the rest on the final two stages, letting the sprinters take charge, while they protected Yates.

Cavendish enjoys fours victories in a week

Mark Cavendish celebrated with Yates after the stage following a solid week of work by his sprint train to give him four sprint victories. Alessandro Petacchi placed Cavendish in prime position for the final corner in the final stage and as the Manxman swung around the bend in first place, neither Guardini or Viviani were able to match his kick.

Cavendish said he was happy with his condition, despite coming into the race after more than a month away from racing through illness.

"My teammates delivered me wonderfully but there was still some way to go before the finish line. But I was still going and going fast. I looked behind and I saw some guys expecting to pip me to the line the way they did yesterday. The speed was so high and my strength left me enough energy to not let it die off," he explained.

"It’s incredible the way the team performed the whole week. I’m really happy the way the team rode and I’m really happy with my form."

In other competitions, Mattia Pozzo (Neri-Sottoli) claimed the Turkish Beauties white jersey competition and Marc de Maar (United Healthcare) the King of the Mountains competition with diligent work all week, starting with the first categorised climb on stage one. Cofidis, who led the race through Taaramae from stage three to six secured a consolation of sorts by winning the team prize.

The final stage was 121km in length and finished with 8 laps of the 12km circuit that were raced aggressively.

It took more than 20km of fast powerful racing before a five-man break eventually broke free of the peloton. However the break’s contributors Valerio Conti (Lampre), Paolo Colonna (Bardiani-CSF),Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural), Tomasz Kiendys (CCC Polsat Polkowice ), Nazim Bakirci (Torku Sekerspor), Youcef Reguigui (MTN-Qhubeka) and Javier Megias Leal (Team Novo Nordisk) were all mopped up by the sprint trains with 10km to go.

In pursuit of the adventurers a mid-peloton crash 30km from the stage finish caught out MTN-Qhubeka rising star, Merhawi Kudus, who was forced to retire. Initial reports said he suffered a broken collarbone. It was a painful end to the Tour of Turkey for the talented climber but a great race for British cycling thanks to the success of Cavendish and especially Yates.

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