Nico Denz and Matthew Walls claimed the top two spots for Bora-Hansgrohe in stage 5 of the Tour of Turkey in a dangerously twisting, downhill, bunch sprint finish.
Denz took it on from the front with around two kilometres to go on a series of sweeping curves, crossing the line with Walls tucked in close behind. Cees Bol (Astana Qazaqstan) came up late for third.
A crash late on in the finale left several top sprinters out of the running, with leading favourite Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) reportedly amongst those affected.
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Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) retained the overall for a third straight day.
“This one is really unexpected, actually. The idea was to stay safe, and lead out Matthew for the sprint, so I took it on, but the final was really technical, even more than we expected.
“With this crash I kept going and no-one was passing me, so I think in the end, it was a bit lucky for me," said Denz, a double-stage winner in the 2023 Giro d’Italia, referring to the crash that brought down many contenders.
“I’m super happy and still speechless, I was really not expecting this one.”
The finish in Bodrum has traditionally favoured the sprinters, with another German fastman, Andre Greipel, winning on both of the Tour of Turkey’s previous visits back in 2013 and 2010.
Nonetheless, on a 180-kilometre stage with several classified climbs, a group of five comprising Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), Dawit Yemane (Bike Aid), Gianni Marchand (Tarteletto-Isorex), Alejandro Franco (Burgos-BH), Alessio Martinelli (Green Project-Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) Fernando Tercero (Eolo-Kometa) opted to see if they could outwit the fastmen and got in the early break.
The five ahead dwindled to two when Vine and Yemane powered off up a steady rise with around 37km to go, even as Alpecin-Deceuninck opted to push up their controlling pace behind. Vine had already managed to snaffle enough climbing points in the early, much hillier, part of the stage to take the lead in the mountains competition. Hopes of outpacing the peloton proved in vain, though, and as the race wound its way through miles of woodland, a draggy segment of false flat ended the duo’s hopes.
While Mehmet Sampiyonbisiklet (Global 6 Cycling) tried a gutsy, brief dig with 10 kilometres to go and failed to defy the sprinters, it lit the fuse for further challenges by Bora-Hansgrohe and Bingoal-WB to upset the fastmen’s applecart. A lengthy drag saw Alexis Guerin Bingoal-WB, a late attacker on the fearsome Babadag climb a few days ago, jumped away unexpectedly on much less challenging terrain. Meanwhile, leading favourite Philipsen sat in the middle of the peloton, biding his time and forcing rival squads like UAE, Bora and Eolo to put in the work.
Guerin was caught just before a fast descent and then on a brutally technical finale, Bora’s decision to put their sprinter and lead-out man at the front of the pack paid off handsomely.
Despite being well-positioned in fourth place, Philipsen and other fastmen were reportedly caught out and crashed on a sweeping left-hand bend, in stark contrast to the two Bora-Hansgrohe riders who even opened up a small gap in the last 200 metres. Bol did his utmost to catch the German and Briton, only for Denze to forge straight across the line for an unexpected, but thoroughly deserved, third triumph of the season - and for Bora, the top two spots of the day.
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