Tour of Turkey: José Manuel Díaz wins Elmalı summit finish

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José Manuel Díaz (Delko) claimed victory up at Elmalı on the queen stage of the Tour of Turkey, moving into the overall lead with three stages remaining.

The Spaniard triumphed atop the 12-kilometre final climb in a dramatic climax that saw late attacker Anthon Charmig (Uno-X) caught just 200 metres from the line.

Charmig slowed dramatically in the final kilometre and slumped to the tarmac right beyond the finish line in exhaustion.

Díaz produced a late charge on the climb to make it a three-up final burst for the line. Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix) hit out first but Díaz delivered the telling acceleration to get his hands in the air.

Eduardo Sepúlveda (Androni Giocattoli) had to settle for the final spot on the podium.

“I was confident for a good result and the team trusted me for that. It was a hard finale. Going into the finish, I wasn’t having my best moment. In the last kilometre, a rider went away but I recovered well and eventually I managed to catch him,” Díaz said.

“Only 50 metres before the line, I realized it was possible to win. It was very close to the line. But with 300 metres to go, any of the five riders at the front was able to win.

After Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was, as expected, dropped on the climb, Díaz, who started the day with most of the field at 30 seconds, took the leader’s turquoise jersey. Thanks to bonus seconds, he leads Vine by four seconds and Sepúlveda by sic seconds, with Anders Johannessen (Uno-X) and Jhojan García (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) at 25 seconds.

Merhawi Kudus (Astana-Premier Tech), who tried to go after the Charmig attack and lost contact with the Díaz group in the final kilometre, is sixth at 28 seconds, with Charmig himself a further two seconds back.

Three stages remain and, although there’s nothing as decisive as Elmalı, there are dangerous late climbs on the road to Marmaris on Friday and Kusadasi on the final day.

“This is a very important result. It’s the first win of the year for the team. When a team starts winning, more results can follow,” Díaz said. “We’ll celebrated this win first and tomorrow we’ll see what more we can do but for sure we’ll try and win the overall.”

How it unfolded

The summit finish at Elmalı – measuring 12km with an average gradient of just over six per cent – has established itself as the critical landmark of the Tour of Turkey.

The 160km stage started out with a third-category climb before a long 17km drag of a first-category ascent after the half-way mark.

After an unsettled start, Mathias Brandle (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Joel Suter (Bingoal-Pauwels Sauzen-Wallonie Bruxelles) went on the attack, and they were soon joined by four others to form the day’s breakaway: Ziga Jerman (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), Mirko Maestri (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Nils Sinschek (Abloc) and Cormac McGeough (Wildlife Generation).

After Maestri was first over the top of the first climb, mountains classification leader

Vitaliy Buts (Salcaro Sakarya) bridged across to make it seven out front. He duly mopped up the points atop the first-category climb, but the break’s four-minute lead had already diminished significantly.

Astana and B&B Hotels took up the reins in the bunch on the approach to the final climb and the gap was inside a minute once they turned onto the road up to Elmalı.  

In the break, Suter launched the first big attack, and the break immediately fragmented. The others were soon caught by the advancing peloton. Ibai Azurmendi (Euskaltel Euskadi) launched a long-range attack but was soon swept up as Astana’s Rodrigo Contreras upped the tempo.

Contreras’ effort rapidly thinned the bunch to just 20 riders by the time Suter was caught 3.5km from the summit. It was another kilometre before Johannesen launched the first major attack from the GC group, which truly exploded this time. Vine was quickly on the case, with Díaz, Charmig, Kudus, Sepúlveda, García, Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels), and Delio Fernández (Delko) all making the selection.

Garcia picked it up but the next big attack came from Charmig with 1.7km to go. Kudus immediately jumped on it but was forced to relent as the Dane sailed up the road.

Vine clawed his way back to Kudus, and despite the gap to Charmig seeming insurmountable, the pair sensed an opportunity when he visibly began to crack in the final kilometre. There was more drama as Díaz and Sepúlveda suddenly made their way up to make it a four-up chase with just over 500 metres to go.

Kudus fell away as the other three caught and passed a rapidly fading Charmig, with Díaz the one with just enough zip left in the legs to claim his team’s first win of the season.