Tour of Turkey: Caleb Ewan wins stage 4

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Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) made use of his small frame to take victory on the uphill finish on stage 4 of the Tour of Turkey. The Australian dug deep to catch and pass Juan Jose Lobato (Nippo Vini Fantini), who had launched his sprint early.

Lobato would hold on to take second place while Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) claimed third to hold onto his race lead for yet another day.

The uphill drag towards the finish line in Bursa made for a very aggressive finale that put most of the sprinters to the sword. A late attack from Mauro Finetto (Delko Marseille Provence) was brought back inside the final kilometre and the peloton was strung out under the force of the chase.

Lobato was the first of the sprint contenders to blink, launching his move from around 10 riders back soon after the final turn. Bennett looked in prime position to take him back, but the Irishman did not have the turn of pace to bridge the small gap to the line. In the end, it was left to Ewan to make the chase.

Ewan had been sat behind Bennett and had to go around him before making it up to the wheel of Lobato. He then jumped out of Lobato's wheel with just 50 metres remaining, taking the victory by less than a bike's length. The effort showed as Ewan lay flat on his back on the tarmac, hand to his face as he tried to catch his breath.

"My team's done a really great job all week and we've committed every day to go for the win and I haven't rewarded them with the win, but I'm happy today to get that one. It was a super tough finish. I can't remember the last time that I went that deep to win a race," said Ewan.

"To be honest, I was on the wheel [of Bennett] and I was already 100 per cent. I was waiting for him to go and he popped a little bit, and I knew that I had to go straight away to catch the guy in front and get the win. Luckily I had enough to do that last sprint."

How it happened

The fourth stage of the Tour of Turkey took the riders north as it travelled from Belikesir to Bursa. The 194.3km stage only contained one classified climb but the uphill drag to the finish line would ensure that it was not a straightforward sprint day. Though the sun was out, it was not that hot and there were plenty of extra layers on show. Despite losing out to Fabio Jakobsen on stage 3, Bennett retained the race lead and started the day in the blue jersey of the race leader.

It didn't take long before a breakaway was formed with five riders escaping the clutches of the peloton. The five were: Mauricio Moreira (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Lucas De Rossi (Delko Marseille Provence), Ander Barrenetxea (Euskadi), Thimo Willems (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and Feritcan Samli (Turkey). The peloton were happy with that, and with five kilometres gone the gap already stood at 2:30 and that would expand to over eight minutes some 10 kilometres later.

Willems wore the red jersey of the leader of the mountains competition, and he would extend his small lead by beating Moreira to the top of the one and only classified ascent. His job done, Willems would sit up and wait to be caught by the peloton, seeing no point in wasting any more energy on a breakaway that never looked likely to succeed. Following the intermediate sprint, Samil would do the same and leave just three riders at the head of affairs.

For much of the day, there seemed to be little impetus in either the peloton or the breakaway and that showed in a relatively gentle average speed of below 35kph in the opening three hours of racing. Despite this, the gap between the two groups gradually reduced as the kilometres ticked by with Bora-Hansgrohe taking up the duties at the front of the bunch with Lukas Postlberger.

With 42 kilometres remaining, Moreira was the next of the escapees to give up his place in the breakaway, perhaps looking for someone else to talk to after such a long day in the saddle. De Rossi and Barrenetxea plugged on alone, attacking each other briefly before deciding that it was a futile exercise. They would eventually be brought back with 12 kilometres remaining, allowing the sprint teams to begin preparing their leadout trains at the front of the bunch.

Buoyed by their third place on stage 3, Dimension Data looked to take control of the pace setting, alongside Lotto Soudal and Euskadi Murias. Deceuninck-QuickStep bided their time, only moving forward in the final five kilometres.

The climb to the finish began soon after and it would get tougher as it got closer to the finish with a maximum gradient of six per cent. Finetto decided to try and take his chances, striking out inside the final two kilometres. A rider from Manzana Postobon tried to follow but crashed on a corner, with Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) getting caught up in the aftermath. The Belgian appeared to hurt his wrist in the fall, though he would cross the line on his bike a short while after the winner.

As plucky as it was, Finetto's attack would be brought back with less than a kilometre remaining. Lobato would be the next to strike out, jumping from a long way back in the group in order to try and catch the others off guard. Bennett looked to hold back until the last moment, but he couldn't get going with the line in sight. Ewan saw his opportunity, moving around Bennett before passing Lobato in the final 50 metres of the stage to take his second WorldTour win of the season.

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