Tour of Turkey: Großschartner takes victory and leader's jersey on stage 5

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Felix Großschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) claimed victory on the summit finish at Kartepe on stage 5 of the Tour of Turkey, taking the overall lead of the race with just one stage remaining. 

The Austrian, who started the day second overall, took the sky blue jersey from his teammate Sam Bennett after kicking away from Merhawi Kudus (Astana) 200 metres from the finish line, which had to be moved 4km down the mountain due to heavy snowfall further up. 

A fading Kudus, who had led solo going into the final kilometre before being caught and passed by Großschartner, was pipped to second place by Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates), nine seconds behind the winner. They had emerged in a select four-man group just under 5km from the top, with neo-pro Remo Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) finishing fourth, 16 seconds down.

Großschartner now leads the general classification, with Conti second overall at 19 seconds, Kudus third at 25 seconds, and Evenepoel fourth at 41 seconds. Though Sunday’s final stage is far from straightforward, there are no major climbs on the road to Istanbul and Großschartner is very much in the driving seat.

After four stages won by sprinters, the Tour of Turkey changed gears on stage 5, which was dubbed the queen stage and featured a summit finish of the scale rarely seen at the week-long race. Even chopping 4km off the top left a 12km ascent with an average gradient of 9.1 per cent, which was always bound to be the crucial juncture of the race for the overall title. Kartepe in Turkish translates to ‘snowy hill’, and the blizzard conditions had led the organisers and team and rider representatives to come together under the UCI’s Extreme Weather Protocol and decide to move the finish line down the mountain.

After an early third-category climb, Roger Kluge (Lotto-Soudal), Jose Viejo (Euskadi) and Robbe Ghys (Vlaanderen-Baloise) went up the road in a small three-man breakaway. They built a lead of seven minutes but that was gradually eaten into on the flat roads that led to the imposing final climb. Ghys was the last man standing but was pretty much caught as soon as he had started climbing.

Dimension Data took control for the first half of the climb, with Scott Davies and then Stefan De Bod leading the way for their GC hope Ben O’Connor. However, O’Connor was unable to build on that platform and started to slip away with the accelerations came with 6km to go. The first major attack came from Conti with 5km to go.

Evenepoel responded and ripped across to the Italian, drawing out Großschartner and Kudus in turn. They emerged as the four strongest before Evenepoel upped the tempo again and went it alone. The junior road race and time trial world champion dug in but was back with the other three with 3km to go, whereupon he gestured for them all to take turns.

Großschartner then attacked with 2.1km to go, and while Evenepoel and Conti were dropped, it looked like he’d have to settle for second as Kudus followed and then accelerated away himself. The Eritrean champion, however, faded as the road flattened in the final 1200 metres, and Großschartner came back. The duo rode together through the mist and the snow-lined roads before Großschartner kicked with 200m to go and Kudus had no response. 

Results

Stage points classification

Stage mountain classification

General classification

Points classification

Mountain classification