Tour of Turkey stage 2: Jasper Philipsen makes it two in Kalkan
Race leader tops Bol in uphill sprint
Jasper Philipsen has made it two out of two on stage 2 of the Tour of Turkey as the Alpecin-Deceuninck racer outgunned Cees Bol (Astana-Qazaqstan) in a tough uphill sprint.
Philipsen clinched the 40th victory of his career and 17th of this season after Bol made a late charge for the line, but Philipsen powered past the Dutchman just in time for the win.
The Belgian sprinter thus remains in the race lead for a second straight day, after a hilly 166.2 kilometre stage from Kemer to Kalkan.
The last riders from a three-man break were reeled in by Alpecin-Deceuninck with 13 kilometres to go, and then after a series of brief attacks in the finale, Philipsen timed his late charge perfectly to claim the victory.
"It was a really hard finish, I was on the limit and at the end of the season, everything going uphill hurts even more," Philipsen said in a race organisation interview.
"Cees did a really good sprint, but it was a long climb to the finish. I knew somebody was going to have a go, and I didn't expect it to be that hard but when the finish line was approaching I felt I had a bit more power in the legs."
"It's always nice to get the win, even more on a hard finish like this one."
A lumpy stage with a cat. 2 ascent in the last 50 kilometres likely to shape the race, it was up to Alpecin-Deceuninck to keep control of the bunch and the break of three, Lennert Teugels (Bingoal WB), Artur Sowinski (Voster-ATS),and Matteo Amella (Corratec-Selle Italia) for all of the day.
The cat. 2 predictably eliminated a number of sprinters from the running- But with the main challenge of the day overcome by Philipsen, a bunch sprint still looked like the most likely outcome, and Alpecin Deceuninck logically did the bulk of the work for the overwhelming favourite.
An attack by Amella on a small rise late on saw Sowinski come across and the duo briefly pushed their gap up to around two minutes, a series of stiff little unclassified coastal climbs in the final hour subsequently making for a more uneven chase behind.
However, the break was finally reeled in with 13 kilometres to go and although UAE Team Emirates provided a brief injection of pace, the mood was far more relaxed than Sunday's fraught finale.
With the finish town of Kalkan almost in sight, stage 2 showed some sign of bursting into life as Eolo-Kometa and Bingoal-WB tried briefly to wake things up, only for the top teams like UAE repress the mini-rebellion with attacks of their own. Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) made one brief surge away on a lengthy slight rise, stringing out the peloton and Bora-Hansgrohe launched a couple of their men off the front. Yet the blue-clad troops of Alpecin-Deceuninck with Philipsen in the turquoise jersey were never too far out of the running and even as the road steepened notably in the last kilometre, Philipsen was still visible close to the head of affairs.
Bol's brutal acceleration briefly looked as if it might have caught Philipsen and co. by surprise in the last possible moment and 30 metres from the line, Bol was still ahead. But Philipsen had, as he said later, just enough energy to storm past, winning the stage by three-quarters of a bike length, with Luca Colnaghi (Green Project-Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) rounding out the day's podium.
Tuesday's stage will see the fastmen take a definitive back seat as the 2023 Tour of Turkey tackles its first major uphill finish, an 18-kilometre ascent to Fethiye averaging out at a daunting 10%. However, Philipsen has more than fulfilled his obligations with back-to-back wins and two days in the lead, and more victories may well yet be to come.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
Most Popular
Latest on Cyclingnews
-
Where are they now? Team Sky's 2012 Tour de France-winning team
The key figures of the history-making British squad, over a decade on from their era-dawning victory -
The end of an era - What Patrick Lefevere's retirement means for pro cycling
'These are big shoes to fill' - admits new Soudal-QuickStep CEO Jurgen Foré -
'I think that he can still improve a little bit' - Tadej Pogačar's coach to increase Slovenian's strength and intensity training for 2025
UAE Team Emirates coaches Javier Sola and Jeroen Swart on how they power and nutrition have changed the sport and Pogačar's preparation -
'Full of the joy of cycling' - How Victor Campenaerts sealed his career in 2024
'Saturated' with personal success after Tour de France stage win, team goals now rule for Belgian rider as he shifts to Visma-Lease a Bike