Tour of Turkey: Kaden Groves wins stage 2 sprint

Image 1 of 8

Kaden Groves (BikeExchange-Jayco) moved into the overall lead of the Tour of Turkey after he beat Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) and Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) in a high-speed bunch sprint in Alaçati.

Overnight Tour of Turkey leader Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) was initially in the mix in the sprint, but he eased up within sight of the line, coming home in fifth place behind Cees Bol (Team DSM).

It was Kaden Groves’ second win of 2022 after his stage victory at the Volta a Catalunya. The Australian, who placed third on the opening stage, is now the overall leader, two seconds up on Philipsen, while Ewan drops to third at four seconds.

“It’s amazing, I’m very happy to back up with another win this season. I can’t thank my teammates enough for such a great job,” said Groves.

“The run-in wasn’t too bad because there was a tailwind from about 10km to go. So it was super-fast. We waited and waited until the exit off the big road with about 4km to go. We nailed the plan today, everyone knew their role and where they had to take us, it was a pretty text book in the end.”

The finale of the stage was marred by a series of crashes, and Nairo Quintana’s general classification challenge suffered a blow when he fell just outside the three-kilometre to go banner. He lost 1:44.

Despite cuts to his left knee and shoulder, he remounted and completed the stage. The Arkéa-Samsic rider had previously fought his way back up to the bunch after going down in a crash with 40km to go, while his teammate Nacer Bouhanni was earlier forced to abandon the race due to a fall and feeling ill. 

The run-in to the finish was a tense affair, with a swirling wind leading to a battle for positions and contributing to some crashes in the peloton. 

Jakub Mareczko (Alpecin-Fenix) was among the fallers, while a number of teams, including BikeExchange-Jayco, massed riders at the head of the bunch.

“We weren’t really sure of the direction of the wind, it was changing quite a bit today. But we thought: ‘why not try and take another team or two with us?’” Groves said. 

“In the end, the wind wasn’t in the right direction, even if it was certainly strong enough. Everyone tried but nothing really happened.”

How it unfolded

The early part of the stage was animated by an eight-man move featuring Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Peio Goikoetxea (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Angel Fuentes (Burgos BH), Julian Lino (Bike Aid), Noah Granigan (Wildlife Generation), Cristian Raileanu (Sakarya), Oleksandr Prevar (Spor Toto) and Nicolas Sessler (Saris Rouvy). 

The eight riders struck up a decent working relationship after the start in Selcuk, but they were never allowed to extend their lead much beyond 2:30 as Alpecin-Fenix and Lotto Soudal set the tempo in the peloton behind.

The break’s gradually shrank in the second half of the stage as the break hit the striking Çeşme peninsula on the Aegean coast. The day’s lone obstacle came here, with Granigan first to the top the category 3 ascent with 40km remaining. Back in the peloton, meanwhile, Quintana and Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix) were held up in a crash, though both men quickly remounted and rejoined the race.

The ever-industrious Goikoetxea was the last survivor of the break, but he was clawed back on the run-in as BikeExchange-Jayco and Team DSM joined Lotto Soudal and Alpecin-Fenix in teeing up the sprint.

The peloton was briefly split by another crash with 26km to go, as the stiff crosswind made its presence felt, but the race was stitched back together again ahead of the run-in. A bunch sprint was inevitable, but there were still late twists, as Quintana was brought down in another crash with 3.4km remaining.

BikeExchange-Jayco were prominent in those closing kilometres, but when Lotto Soudal took over beneath the flamme rouge, it looked as though Ewan was poised to repeat his win from the opening stage.

Sam Bennett moved onto Ewan’s wheel for the sprint, though the Irishman had to take the long way around when the Australian sat up in the closing metres. 

The fight for stage victory, however, was already unfolding on the other side of the road, where Groves came off Philipsen’s wheel and powered past to take an emphatic victory.

Results powered by FirstCycling.com