Tour of Turkey: Wout Poels clinches stage 4 and lead with mountain top attack

Dutchman Wout Poels has captured stage 4 of the Tour of Turkey from Marmaris to Akyaka, moving into the overall lead as he claimed his first-ever win for XDS-Astana on the first and toughest summit finish of the race.

In a triumphant day for the Chinese-Kazakh team, Poels' teammate Harold Martín López placed second, 19 seconds back, with Guillermo Juan Martinez (Picnic-PostNL) in third.

On a crash-marred, rain-soaked stage and after a hilly opening leg where the bunch deemed a 15-man move too powerful and numerous to let go, the battle for victory boiled down to the final first-category 9.1km Kiran ascent. 

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At its foot, 60 riders chased a breakaway comprising Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Victor Vaneeckhoute (Lotto), Gorka Sorarrain (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Mustafa Tekin (Spor Toto) and Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) with a rapidly dropping advantage of about 90 seconds.

One by one the break was caught and after former Tour de France stage winner Poels attacked in the last five kilometres, a new, decisive move emerged containing the Dutchman and his  XDS-Astana teammate Harold Martín López, Ion Agirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), and Picnic-PostNL duo Frank van den Broek – the 2024 overall winner – and Martinez. 

All four were at 14 seconds on GC so had serious options on the overall, but Poels was, again, the first to really open up the throttle two kilometres from the line, followed by Martín López. However, Poels maintained his advantage to stay away for a lone victory.

After former leader and allrounder Tibor del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was dropped 8km from the line, Poels now heads the GC by 23 seconds ahead of his teammate López.

Stage 5 from Marmaris to Aydan should see the sprinters back in action before a second and potentially decisive summit finish on Friday at Selcuk.

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