Tour of Turkey: Elia Viviani sprints to stage 7 victory to take first win for Lotto

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Italian beats Alexander Kristoff into second in close bunch finish in Çeşme

Elia Viviani wins stage 7 at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkiye
Elia Viviani wins stage 7 at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkiye (Image credit: Getty Images)
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Italy's Elia Viviani claimed his first victory for Lotto and his first of the year by sprinting to the win on stage 7 of the Tour of Turkey.

The fast finish in Çeşme saw several riders all battling in a tight sprint finish, but it was the Italian who just about emerged the fastest to the line, beating Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) into second whilst Davide Persico (Wagner Bazin WB) took third.

This marks Viviani's first win since the Tour of Guangxi in 2023, and a point proven after he was left without a contract at the end of 2024, only picked up by Lotto in the middle of February this year.

"I always think I can still have it. Finally, has everyone knows, [Lotto boss] Stéphane Heulot gave me this chance and this is how I want to pay [him back]," Viviani said at the finish.

"I'm an experienced guy in a really young team, and the first thing is that I want them to learn from me, from Jasper [De Buyst], from these kind of guys. They can learn resilience, to continue believing in this modern cycling where everyone knows it's difficult to take a win, so I'm really happy."

After several tough stages, Saturday's profile offered up a chance for the sprinters, but that didn't stop some opportunists from trying to spoil the sprinters' fun and take advantage of some win in the finale. 

The day's breakaway tried to work together to go to the finish, and they did make it a long way into the stage, but the last escapee was finally caught with just under 7km to go. 

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Matilda Price
Assistant Features Editor

Matilda is an NCTJ-qualified journalist based in the UK who joined Cyclingnews in March 2025. Prior to that, she worked as the Racing News Editor at GCN, and extensively as a freelancer contributing to Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly, Velo, Rouleur, Escape Collective, Red Bull and more. She has reported from many of the biggest events on the calendar, including the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France Femmes, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. She has particular experience and expertise in women's cycling, and women's sport in general. She is a graduate of modern languages and sports journalism.


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