Tour of Turkey: Sam Bennett wins stage 2

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Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) gobbled up his first WorldTour win since the Giro d'Italia with victory on stage 2 of the Presidential Tour of Turkey. The Irishman, who finished second on stage 1, made no mistake 24 hours later after making use of a fine lead-out from his teammates before capitalising on a final charge to the line from Quick-Step Floors.

The Belgian team were hoping to set up their young sprinter Alvaro Hodeg but the Colombian could only manage second on the line, with Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) finishing a distant third.

Stage 1 winner and overnight race leader, Maximiliano Richeze (Quick-Step Floors), turned lead-out man for stage 2 and dropped Hodeg off with 200m to go but Bennett showed the opposition a clean pair of heels.

Bennett now leads the race and pulls on the blue jersey, with Richeze relegated to second, six seconds back. The consistent Jempy Drucker (BMC Racing) lies third on GC.

In a similar pattern to stage 1, Wednesday's stage came down to a bunch sprint. And in similar fashion a number of the pre-race favourites were found wanting, with John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) once again caught too far back as the sprinters jostled for position.

Bennett's teammate, Lukas Pöstlberger, lined the peloton out in the closing kilometre as the bunch rounded a crucial 90 degree left-hand turn before Quick-Step hit the front and drew Bennett with them. The Irishman, who dined on four stages in Turkey last year, followed Hodeg as the Colombian opened his sprint but the writing was already on the wall as the Bora sprinter opened up for the line.

"I'm happy. It's a bit of a relief. I came here after a quiet mid-season. I won't say I can relax now but some of the pressure has gone. I'm really happy," Bennett said of his win.

"There are still some opportunities to come and the guys did a fantastic job today, as well. I really want to thank them.

"I was waiting for them [ed. Quick-Step] but in the finale I didn't really know if we'd caught the breakaway or not because with around 10km to go it was so dangerous that I just had to concentrate on what I was doing. There was talking on the earpiece, and I would have liked to have put my hands up, but Quick-Step came with about 500-600m to go and it was perfect positioning. It's always good to get a victory going into the off-season. It keeps the morale high when you don't have much racing."

The Presidential Tour of Turkey continues on Thursday with stage 3 from Fethiye to Marmaris.

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