The third stage of the Tour of Turkey is another one for the puncheurs. Matthias Kessler won yesterday’s stage and will hope that he can further extend his yellow jersey lead today. The other favourites such as Ben Hermans and Cesare Di Maggio will be looking to topple him today, while Samuel Sanchez out to prove something after a rather anonymous tenth yesterday.
With the lumpy terrain today it is rather unsurprising that we get an attack right out of the blocks. The man is Petr Ignatenko, who attacked yesterday as well. Given that Tinkoff are without a leader for the GC at this race they really have to try for results out of breakaways.
Ignatenko eases himself out to about a minute and then the attacks behind him start. First up are: Thomas Koep Glenn Likhaya James Perry Arman Kamyshev Brian Vandborg
Vandborg is only at +1’50” after yesterday so this could be a real coup for him. Other attacks follow these men, lead by Fumiyuki Beppu.
Going with Beppu are: Hayden Roulston Natnael Berhane Fabrice Jeandesbosz
All three of these riders were in a break at some point during yesterday’s stage and clearly they have come here looking to be aggressive. Berhane appears to be playing the same role as he was yesterday, just marking the break. Given that Vandborg has tried to work his way in to the group, however, it was only going to be a matter of time before the group was brought back in.
Immediately a new break forms. It largely consists of the same riders as the earlier break, but with the notable exception of Brian Vandborg. The new group is: James Perry Arman Kamyshev Glenn Likhaya Francesco Gavazzi Fabrice Jeandesbosz Aurélien Passeron Fumiyuki Beppu Kiril Yatsevich Denis Galimzyanov
These 9 riders are joined by another 2 to form a total break of 11 riders. The 2 other men are: Philip Lavery Natnael Berhane
The peleton seems to have very few problems with this group and they are allowed to be the break of the day. Lavery is the best placed in the group in 37th at +3’02”.
Coming up the first big obstacle of the day Passeron and Lavery are the two men who do most of the work in the breakaway, being two of the better climbers. Their efforts drop Perry, Yatsevich, Jeandesboz and Kamyshev, none of whom are known for their climbing prowess.
The first of the two KOM primes is at the top. Given that current wearer Heymes has only 10 points, whoever gets the most points out on course today will be wearing the jersey for at least a day. The climb is hotly contested with Russian sprinter Galimzyanov leading most of the way up but just as the group crests, Gavazzi overtakes him and he gets the 16 points. Third place goes to Likhaya, Fourth to Berhane and then Passeron takes fifth.
The group goes over the top with a 5’25” lead. Trilux are leading the peleton well, not causing too many splits, but still keeping a decent tempo. The tempo clearly isn’t too high, however, as Rob Partridge and Alex Diniz attack out of the bunch on the descent.
These two form a strong duo and fight their way in to the second group on the road, containing those riders who were dropped on the previous climb. As the road rises once again, with 77km to go, the situation is as follows:
1’45”
3’52”
5’37”
Leaders (7)
--->
Chasers (6)
--->
Peleton (54)
Realising that they will just be swallowed up by the Peleton if they stay here, Partridge and Diniz push on past the chase group and join up with the lead group just before the day’s only sprint prime.
Beppu pushes hard for the sprint and for a moment it looks like the others are just going to let him ride away with it but eventually Lavery jumps out after him. Lavery would enjoy having a few bonus seconds as they would help if today’s break succeeds. In the end the result is just too close to call.
Beppu is awarded the sprint, with Lavery obviously in second place. Partridge rolls over in third place, taking the 2 seconds. Just over 5 minutes later the bunch rolls in, with the pace now rising slightly.
After only a very small break there is another KOM prime. Another 16 points are on offer and this time, after showing less interest at the previous mountain climb, Passeron crosses the line first. He is followed by Diniz, then Galimzyanov, Partridge and finally Lavery cleans up the final 2 points. After his solid placings on both prime Galimzyanov enters the lead in the King of the Mountain classification. The young sprinter will surely be surprised.
The peleton roll across at 4’32”, with 50km to go. On the way down, however, the lead just melts away. California Giant particularly starts to up the pace and with several strong descenders they manage to pull in almost the entire gap over the 20km of technical descending. As the course flattens out again, with 30km to go, the gap is down to 1’30”.
The final 30km is broken up by two hills, with the second one clearly posing more of an obstacle. As the break hits the first of these slight challenges, Gavazzi decides that he stands more of a chance alone.
No one goes with him and the fight just seems to go out of the other breakaway riders. Luis Pasamontes makes the catch over the top of this rise and the California Giant train just continues to steam on unabated. The catch Gavazzi soon afterwards, and so the favourites will be left to duke it out.
It doesn’t take long until race leader Matthias Kessler obliges with a stinging attack on the flat. Samuel Sanchez does not miss a trick and is straight on to his back wheel. Clearly he is determined to make more of a mark than he did yesterday.
Ben Hermans realises that he can’t afford to miss this move and he comes half way across the gap but can’t make the full junction. Behind him Alex Dowsett, Cesare Di Maggio and Thomas Voeckler try to come across. They are surprisingly joined by Ronny Schulz and Saab’s team leader Johan Lindgren. Dowsett falls off the pace of Di Maggio, however, and drops back in to the peleton.
The new attackers get across to Sanchez and Kessler, but behind them Ignas Konovalovas has put in a great effort to defend his second place overall and succeeds in pulling back all the other favourites. Thomas Voeckler once again tries to attack away from the other favourites.
Voeckler’s attack is reeled back in pretty quickly, however, and there is a moment for everyone to try to catch their breath as they come under the 10km to go banner just before the final climb starts to ramp up. As if this could get any more tense, the rain starts to come down.
The first rider to truly try anything is one of the ones who has kept his powder the most dry – Konovalovas. He kicks out of the group and only Kessler and Visconti are able to follow his initial acceleration.
This group has the potential to be rather dangerous and with Kessler up here, the other favourites have to react. Ultimately it comes down to Cesare Di Maggio and his seemingly endless pools of energy to pull the peleton back into the race. The kilometres are slowly dwindling for anyone to make a decisive move.
Samuel Sanchesz decides that this is his moment and he launches an absolutely blistering attack. Di Maggio is hot on his wheel, as are Kessler, Visconti once again and Dowsett at the back.
As they crest the final hill Visconti and Dowsett were struggling slightly, but Dowsett succeeds in pulling the two of them back in to the lead group of 5. They have pulled out a 44 second gap under the 5 kilometre to go banner but aren’t working particularly well together – none of them want to spend their energy to drag their competition to the finish line.
Konovalovas isn’t as concerned as the other favourites and he gets on the front of the 15 man chase group and starts pulling the gap back.
Within the next 2 kilometres, Konovalovas has put in a huge effort and has brought the others back in to the fold. Doing so has cost him dearly, though, and it is clear that he has nothing left for the final dash.
Kessler, on the other hand, senses one last opportunity and really attempt to drive it home under the 1km to go kite.
Sanchez is just behind him, desperately trying to close the gap. In the end he just hasn’t got enough energy to stop Kessler making it two stage wins in a row.
Sanchez keep sprinting for the line though and the race officials decide that he gets there close enough so that there aren’t any time gaps for the stage – he may have just saved his race.
Behind, the strong-finishing Bernucci comes in 3rd, Di Maggio 4th and Hermans 5th. Grau takes a strong 6th, Murakami stays in contact for 7th and Visconti in 8th place makes it 3 in the top 10 for Unicredit. Rounding out the top 10 are Dowsett in 9th and Fahnert in 10th. Konovalovas comes in 11th, but he has done enough to protect his podium place today.
