Tour of Turkey: Jasper Philipsen wins sprint in Marmaris

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After picking up three second places earlier in the race, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) took his first win of the 2021 Tour of Turkey in Marmaris, sprinting to victory centimetres ahead of André Greipel (Israel Start-Up Nation) on stage 6 to Marmaris despite suffering a rear derailleur problem.

Kristoffer Halvorsen (Uno-X) took third place as five sprinters fanned across the road at the line, with points classification leader Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep) taking fourth after narrowly avoiding being taken out by Stanisław Aniołkowski (Bingoal-Pauwels Sauces-Wallonie Bruxelles) metres before the line.

Greipel's ISN squad had taken charge in the final kilometre, dropping their sprinter off with 150 metres to go. Both Philipsen and Aniołkowski sat behind him, each moving either side at the 100-metre mark, with Halvorsen and Cavendish moving out to the margins of the finishing straight.

Ultimately, the German veteran couldn't hold his pace all the way to the line, with Philipsen edging past him as Halvorsen moved from the Belgian's slipstream into third down the barriers.

On the left-hand side of the road, Aniołkowski almost barged into Cavendish in the closing metres, but saved it for fifth place, while the Manxman – unimpeded by the Polish champion but forced to take the long way to the line – finished fourth on a day he was looking for his fourth win at the race.

José Manuel Díaz (Delko) continues in the race lead after winning the stage 5 summit finish at Elmalı. The Spaniard holds a four-second lead over Alpecin-Fenix's Jay Vine heading into Saturday's penultimate stage to Turgutreis, while Eduardo Sepùlveda (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) lies third at six seconds.

"It was really disappointed with the three second places so I knew the victory was really close. Everything had to fall in a good place with no mistakes in the sprint, so I'm really happy," Philipsen said after the stage.

"We had to change the tactics a little bit. We lost three guys, so I didn't have a full lead-out train and I had to use the other teams a little bit. In the last five kilometres, my chain fell off my rear derailleur, so it wasn't on the wheel, so I had to push a lot more watts to keep the speed going.

"I was almost sure I was never going to win the sprint. I followed the good wheels and then I could sprint a little bit. I'm happy that Greipel opened up otherwise it would have been impossible.

"I'm just really happy with this victory. It was also a real team effort. To win a stage here, this week is a good one. Let's hope that we make it an even better week at the next race."

How it unfolded

Stage 6 of the Tour of Turkey took the peloton 129.1 kilometres west from Fethiye to the resort town of Marmaris. The second-shortest stage of the race, offered up two climbs, including a second-category, three-kilometre hill at 11 kilometres from the finish, plus two intermediate sprints ahead of a flat finish but a sprint finish was always likely.

The break of the day took almost half the stage to establish themselves after a quick start and plenty of attacks which never quite stuck. Nonetheless, mountain classification leader Vitaly Buts (Salcano Sakarya BB) took the points over the first climb of the day, a third-category test after 51.5 kilometres of racing.

It wasn't until the kilometre 64 of racing that the break managed to get away, just before the mid-stage feed zone. 

Five men got out front – Sebastian Schönberger (B&B Hotels p/b KTM), Samuele Zoccarato (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Tom Paquot (Bingoal-Pauwels Sauces-Wallonie Bruxelles), Samuele Rivi (Eolo-Kometa), and Ivar Slik (Abloc) all made it away.

They were let go by the peloton but didn't amass a huge lead with just 65 kilometres of racing left. At the 50-kilometre mark, their advantage maxed out at 2:30, as Deceuninck-QuickStep and Delko worked on the front of the peloton for three-time stage winner Cavendish and race leader Díaz, respectively.

The break remained together until an unclassified climb 25 kilometres from the finish. There, Slik was detached and caught by the peloton as his breakmates pushed on from a 20-second lead back up to over a minute. 

Back in the peloton, Josu Etxeberria (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Matvey Mamykin (Nippo-Provence-PTS), and Jesse Ewart (Sapura) were among a small group of riders trying a move before quickly being brought back.

On the flat lead-in to the day's final climb, Deceuninck-QuickStep and Delko once again took over at the front to reduce the break's advantage to 20 seconds, with Fabio Jakobsen prominent at the head of the peloton as he continued to improve in his comeback race, eight months after his terrible Tour de Pologne crash.

Astana-Premier Tech moved to the front on the climb, ending the breakaway's hopes at the 12-kilometre mark before Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels p/b KTM) put in the next attack. More men, including Vine and Merhawi Kudus (Astana-Premier Tech) pushed on towards the top, but no riders could achieve any separation over the top.

At the rear, several groups of riders had been dropped by the high pace, but a number of sprinters – including Cavendish, Greipel and Philipsen – had survived in the main peloton.

A speedy descent down the highway followed, with a mix of teams taking to the front and no one squad taking charge on the front until  Deceuninck-QuickStep got back on the front at the five-kilometre mark. B&B Hotels and Israel Start-Up Nation also moved up as the peloton quickly shut down a solo move from an Abloc rider.

The same three teams remained in charge through the town, with ISN pushing the pace alone under the flamme rouge onto the brick-paved finishing straight. 

Greipel was the first to launch into the wind, sprinting from 150 metres to go, but it was Philipsen who proved the quickest finisher, coming from the 38-year-old's wheel to take his second win of 2021.