Tour of Turkey: Modolo wins bunch sprint in Alanya

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Sacha Modolo claimed his first victory of the year Wednesday at the Tour of Turkey, right on time to build his confidence ahead of the Giro d’Italia starting next week in Appeldoorn, The Netherlands. He outsprinted four of his compatriots in Alanya: Daniele Colli, Marco Zanotti, Manuel Belletti and Jakub Mareczko, while André Greipel remained isolated at the end as Lotto-Soudal paid for their enormous efforts of the previous day.

“This victory was necessary for several reasons," the Lampre-Merida sprinter said. “This year I’ve been feeling strong since the beginning. I’ve been close to the win on a few occasions but beaten by [Elia] Viviani at the Dubai Tour, by [Mark] Cavendish at the Tour of Qatar, I’ve made a couple of top 10 at Tirreno-Adriatico, I fell with 5km to go in Milan-Sanremo and I crashed again as I came here, during stage 1 in Istanbul and quite heavily as well. My morale wasn’t at its best. I was in pain on stage 2 but as I felt better yesterday I missed the split. A rider like me had to be at the front when echelons were made. So I was pissed off with myself but only the victory was missing.”

Stage 4 started with a long ascent and a category 1 climb at 31km. There was an atmosphere of revenge with the riders who had lost any hope on GC looking very determined, namely Ilia Koshevoy and former race leader Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) as well as Mauro Finetto (Unieuro), who went for King of the Mountains points but didn’t manage to dethrone Rémy Di Gregorio (Delko Marseille).

In the never-ending downhill towards the Mediterranean Sea, six riders went away: Nikolay Mikhaylov (CCC), Mirko Tedeschi (Southeast), Pawel Cieslik (Verva), Dominik Hrinkow (Hrinkow), Sven Van Luijk (Parkhotel) and Alessandro Malaguti (Unieuro). Forty kilometres before the end, Cieslik attacked, followed by Malaguti and rejoined by Van Luijk. Ten kilometeres further, their advantage over the peloton led by Lotto-Soudal was 2.20 but a bunch sprint finish looked unevitable although Malaguti forged on by himself until 5km to go.

“A bit of intelligence was required to win this sprint," the Italian commented. “It was a non-linear sprint because everyone waited for Lotto-Soudal to launch it but with 700 metres to go, the bunch slowed down. Zanotti’s team [Parkhotel Valkenburg] took over and I followed his wheel but it slowed down again at 400 to go. I thought I had lost the sprint but Belletti opened it and I passed him.”

“In the finale, Greipel and Modolo were the riders to watch for the sprint," runner-up Colli said. “Maybe there was a way for me to beat Modolo. I came back to him but I couldn’t do more.”

“It’s nice to be part of a fully Italian podium," Zanotti echoed. “My team has helped me all day. Sven [Van Luijk] was in the breakaway and the others protected me before they put me in the best position for sprinting. Even though I don’t often win races, they trust me. There are great sprinters here. It’s not easy to beat them. But every day we try and maybe one day they’ll make a mistake so we’ll take the top price.”

The Caja Rural-Seguros RGA team of race leader Pello Bilbao enjoyed an easier ride from the Anatolian plateau to the Mediterranean Sea than the day before. “The start was really fast," the Basque rider said. “We didn’t want to let a too big group go. I don’t think Lampre-Merida was trying to get a revenge when Niemiec and Koshevoy attacked. There’s nothing personal. I just believe they have other goals now, like breaking away or taking mountain points. We collaborated with Lotto-Soudal because they wanted the same thing as us. At the end, it’s a great day for us because we want the situation to remain the same until stage 6.”

Caja Rural-Seguros RGA unexpectedly occupies the first three positions on GC at half way into the 52nd Presidential Tour of Turkey.

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