Patrick Bevin (Israel Start-Up Nation) won stage 7 of the Tour of Turkey to move into the overall lead with one day remaining. The New Zealander went clear on the final climb with Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix) and Nicolas Edet (Arkea-Samsic), and he then powered clear of his breakaway companions to take the spoils in Tekirdağ.
The three leaders escaped inside the final 30km and held off a reduced chasing group that included overnight leader Eduardo Sepulveda (Drone Hopper-Androni). Vine’s teammate Jasper Philipsen clipped away from the chasers in the finale to take 4th on the stage.
In the overall standings, Bevin leads Vine by 20 seconds, while Sepulveda is now third at 40 seconds.
"It’s going to be a nervous stage tomorrow. I’ve just come back from injury so to come here with such good form is a very nice feeling," said Bevin, who did the bulk of the heavy lifting to keep the break clear.
"I felt like I shouldered a lot of the burden of that last break. I did a lot of the work and I didn’t get a whole lot of help. I got a bit of help from Jay, but Nicolas didn’t really want to help. The stage was on the line but fortunately it played into my hands at the end and I managed to win it, so I’m really, really happy with that."
After Edet attacked in the final kilometre, Vine closed him down and then Bevin powered away to win the stage by two seconds. Sepulveda came home in the first chasing group, 41 seconds behind.
"My team rode really well. We had a plan, to ride hard into the bottom of the last climb," Bevin said. "I felt like it was a very tough stage, despite the gradients not be really steep the whole way up. There were some sharp bits at the bottom and I feel like we hit those really hard to put some guys into the trouble."
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