The favourites for this fourth day of the Tour of Turkey are the same as they have been for the past two days, so the bookmakers believe that today will be one for the puncheurs. There are two main climbs, with the first one being categorised. The stage is also over 200km long, which should lend an advantage to any teams with a great deal of depth.
The attacks start off early, lead by Alex Diniz and Kevin Ista.
These two push away from the group without a fight and are quickly joined by five more riders. These men are: Tom Zirbel Aurélien Passeron Petr Ignatenko Evan Oliphant Tsagbu Grmay
Zirbel is the best placed rider at +5’35” and Passeron is next at +7’45”, so the Peleton is happy to let them go as the rain starts really coming down. Passeron was in yesterday’s break and Ignatenko was in the break on the first day. More importantly for Passeron, he is only 2 points down in the mountain classification and will be looking to jump into the lead today.
The lead group reaches the mountain classification in good order, and on the way up there is a real surprise for Cyclevox as Oliphant falls off his bike, having run into a ditch on the side of the road. It takes him quite a while to get back up and by then it becomes obvious that he is going to struggle to get back in to the break as he is far from the best climber. I’m sure he will be receiving some stern words tonight from the team manager about his bike handling skills.
The leaders continue up the climb and it is Passeron who jumps ahead near the summit to take the maximum points, putting him comfortably in the lead tonight. Zirbel follows him over in 2nd, Ignatenko takes 3rd with Ista and Grmay rounding out the first five riders. Oliphant comes through in 6th place, 4 minutes behind them, clearly unsure whether to persevere or to drop back.
Back in the peleton, Trilux set a steady pace and succeed in splitting the peleton over the narrow roads. None of the big pre-race favourites are dropped, with Van Zandbeek being the biggest name.
The peleton come under the King of the Mountains banner 8 minutes behind the break. On the descent and over the next period of flat the pace remains high. The group that was dropped gets back in but small groups are constantly falling off the back and coming back in. At one point Luis Pasamontes falls behind, but he leads his group back in singlehandedly and saves his race.
The pace up the front of the race is furious and they manage to pull out a maximum of over 15 minutes. Trilux and Venchi do a lot of work to try to pull them back in, but with so many domestiques constantly off the back of the race they are struggling to get much help.
This effect continues over the top of the second major obstacle of the day, which is followed by the intermediate sprint point. They roll over with Passeron first, Diniz second and Zirbel in third. Clearly they are more interested in maintaining the pace, because they can see the prospect of a stage victory on the horizon. With 60km to go the peleton goes through the sprint prime at 10’40” having caught Oliphant shortly before. The pace has whittled the peleton down to 28 riders. The constant pace of Trilux and three days of tough, high-speed racing has taken its toll.
The biggest name to miss this front group are Saab teammates Lindgren and Lavery as well as Meiji rider Lagutin
With 10km to go, the gap remains over 9 minutes and it doesn’t look like it is coming in any further. None of the chasing teams have enough domestiques left to really make a dent in the gap. There is nothing that can stop the break taking the win now, and it is almost certain that Zirbel will be in the race lead at the end of the day. The break line up to decide the day.
Ista leads out with Passeron on his wheel. Zirbel sits in third place, with Ignatenko behind him. Diniz is in 5th and Grmay is at the very back of this line.
Ista obviously went too early as he begins to fade. Passeron comes around him. Does Zirbel still have the legs to take the stage win?
Apparently not. Passeron wins stage 4 of the Tour of Turkey.
Zirbel comes in second and Grmay shows his quality by coming around for third. Ignatenko is fourth and Diniz clearly didn’t have the legs left for a sprint as he can only beat Ista for 5th place.
The clock starts to determine what Zirbel’s lead will be and a huge 10 minutes and 24 seconds later the peleton comes through, lead by Di Maggio ahead of Sagan.
That puts a very surprised Tom Zirbel in the race lead, and Passeron in second place on GC, wearing the mountain jersey. Many team managers will be disappointed in their riders today but none of the teams chasing the gap had the depth to ensure enough riders in the finale. The rainy conditions did not help the chasers either. Exhausted by three days of racing, Nevio Tirloni comes in outside the time limit and withdraws.
