Tour of Turkey: Greipel wins stage 4

André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) won his first stage at the 2015 Tour of Turkey in a bunch sprint ahead of Daniele Colli (Nippo - Vini Fantini) and Daniele Ratto (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) on stage 4 from Fethiye to Marmaris.

Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) retained his seven-second overall lead ahead of Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida) despite a late scare that saw a two other top ten riders attack on the final climb of the race.

Greipel, though, came through to take an impressive win after his main rival Mark Cavenidsh (Etixx-QuickStep) was dropped on the climb before the descent into Marmaris. Each man had won in the finish town on previous occasions but the German timed his run to the line perfectly, opening up his sprint on the final corner to win by over a bike length from Colli.

The Lotto Soudal train had positioned their sprinter towards the front of the peloton as they crested the top of the climb and measured their team effort perfectly before dropping off the German national champion with 500 meters to go.

The final climb before the plunge into Marmaris provided the day’s most intense action until that point. The day’s break of Nicola Boem (Bardiani CSF), Florian Guillou (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Mattia Pozzo (Nippo - Vini Fantini), Charles Planet (Team Novo Nordisk), Kevin Seeldraeyers (Torku Sekerspor) and Natnael Berhane (MTN – Qhubeka) established a lead of over three minutes but as the final climb approached CCC Sprandi Polkowice and Cavendish’s Etixx-QuickStep mustered a chase that saw the lead drop significantly.

It was the Belgian team who provided most of the grunt work with Guillaume Van Keirsbulck and Iljo Keisse taking significant turns on the front.

Pozzo was the first casualty from the break, slipping back on the lower slopes as Lotto and UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling also joined the pacesetting duties. Cavendish’s men eased off as the climb began to bite but before the summit the remnants of the break had been caught.

The scene was set for an opportunistic counter attack and Tinkoff and Astana prepared the way before Valerio Agnoli (Astana Pro Team), Luis Mas Bonet (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Carlos Julian Quintero (Colombia), Jay Mccarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Serge Pauwels (MTN – Qhubeka) moved clear.

The latter two riders were inside the top ten overall and their aggression sparked Rebellin’s men back into life as a frantic chase on the descent ensued.

The break held a slender ten seconds over the peloton as the finishing town approached but that quickly evaporated as Lotto and Orica-GreenEdege sensed their opportunity after Cavendish had been dropped on the climb.

However with Greipel in the midst of the action the chances of anything but a win for the German were remote. He kept calm as a number of his rivals wasted energy from too far out and swatted them away like flies as he cleared through the rank and file to take the stage.

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