Tour of Turkey: Lev Gonov wins stage 3 as Tibor Del Grosso maintains overall lead

Development team rider Lev Gonov (XDS Astana) won stage 3 of the Tour of Turkey, sprinting to victory after an aggressive 176-kilometre day of racing into Marmaris.

The Russian rider produced an impressive sprint after already being part of one of several attacks that launched and got caught in the final 10km run-in, holding enough speed to pip Lander Loockx (Unibet Tietema Rockets) and Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to the line.

Giovanni Lonardi (Polti-VisitMalta) opened up the sprint after starting the day second overall, just four seconds down on Del Grosso for the race lead, but was overtaken by Gonov, Loockx and finally the Dutchman before the line.

With the bonus seconds worked out, Del Grosso held onto his overall lead, thanks to producing a stunning sprint for third way down in the bunch, with Gonov jumping up to equal second overall alongside Belgian Loockx at a four-second deficit.

An attacking third day of the Tour of Turkey saw six riders get away into the break of the day:  Vadim Pronskiy (Terengganu), Konrad Czabok (Mazowsze Serce Polski), Willie Smit (China Glory-Mentech), Even Yemane (Istanbul Büyükșehir Belediye Spor Türkiye), Doğukan Arikan, Mustafa Tekin (Spor Toto) and Burak Abay (Konya Büyükşehir Belediye Spor).

The break's day ended just more than 40km from the finish, as the peloton raced into the second categorised climb of the day, where racing exploded into life. Several moves were launched, with Del Grosso struggling but managing to hold on.

More attacks came in the last 25km of the stage, with Alpecin forced to try and control Jonas Geens (Flanders-Baloise) and Victor Vaneeckhoutte (Lotto), who got 20 seconds up the road.

The pair were caught in the final 10km, only prompting more of the remaining peloton to try and make a move stick. 

Gonov,  Andreas Kron (Lotto), Giovanni Carboni (Unibet Tietema Rockets and Harold Lopez (XDS Astana) were among those who attacked; however, none of them stayed away, with the third stage coming down to a bunch sprint, won by Gonov.

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