Lotto-Belisol’s Andre Greipel used tremendous power and perfect timing to take the sprint finish of Stage Two of the Presidential Tour of Turkey. Greipel came from sixth wheel in a disorganized bunch, saw an opening 300 meters out and opened a two-length gap before anyone saw him go.
The big German didn’t have any teammates to help him; as Europcar, Accent Jobs, and GreenEdge fought for control in the final 500 meters, Greipel watched, waited, and took total advantage.
“I just thought to myself, Okay I’m going to give it a try even I think it was 350 or 300 to go,” Greipel told Eurosport. “First time I looked up it was still 200 meters and I was pretty tired but the last 100 meters I looked through my legs and I couldn’t see anyone. It was a nice sprint I think.”
The Tour of Turkey has attracted some very powerful squads this year, which made Greipel’s win more significant.
“I thought before we started this race, ten really world-class sprinters here,” he commented. “I don’t have my leadout train here so we didn’t put so much pressure; but still we wanted to win a stage, and we have already reached our goal in the second stage
“The circuit is harder than in other years and also the riders are better, so we just have to give it another chance.”
GreenEdge’s Matt Goss finished second in the sprint for the second day in a row, earning himself the leader’s turquoise jersey; he is not likely to keep it as Stage Three is a mountain stage.
Rabobank’s Theo Bos won Stage One by inches from Goss Sunday. Bos and Mark renshaw rtrade leadout/sprinter roles on the Rabobank squad and Monday was Renshaw’s day; he finished fourth behind Europcar’s Matteo Pelucchi.
Stage Two, 153 km from Alanya to Antalya, was a rolling route with a flat finish, made for sprinters. That didn’t stop the breakaway riders. Astana’s Alexandr Vinokourov, inspired by the victory of teammate maxim Iglinskiy in Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday, led the first successful attack fifty km into the stage. Vinokourov led four other riders—Laurent Pichon (Bretagne-Schuller,) Paolo Locatelli (Colnago,) Laszlo Bodrogi (Team Type 1,) Matteo Fedi (Utensilnord)—until they were swallowed up five km from the finish line.
Farnese Vini was the first team to take the lead after the break was caught, but with only three riders, they ran out of firepower. Lampre and Saxo Bank fought for the lead before NetApp came down the right with four riders, but netApp lacked the speed.
Europcar took over in the last two km with three riders, and held on into the final kilometer, when Accent Jobs spoiled the Europcar train with two riders. A UHC rider moved the front for a moment; then GreenEdge sent an organized trio down the right side. As riders were pushing and shoving trying to get on the right wheel, Andre Greipel spotted a clear path down the middle of the road and attacked.
Stage Three, 152 km from Antalya to Elmali, should be the decisive stage for the General Classification. A climbing stage with a mountaintop finish, the route starts with a Cat 2 ascent, followed by a Cat 1 climb halfway through and a Cat 1 finish. The first half of the course is almost all uphill, with some lumpy plateaus where the peloton will push the pace to weaken the climbers’ legs before the final ascent.
| Tour of Turkey Stage 2 | |||
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| rider | team | time |
| 1 | André Greipel | Lotto Belisol | 3:16:04 |
| 2 | Matthew Harley Goss | GreenEdge |
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| 3 | Matteo Pelucchi | Europcar |
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| 4 | Mark Renshaw | Rabobank |
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| 5 | Andre Schulze | Team Netapp |
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| 6 | Francesco Chicchi | Omega Pharma-Quickstep |
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| 7 | Jacopo Guarnieri | Astana |
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| 8 | Filippo Baggio | Utensilnord |
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| 9 | Alexey Tsatevitch | Katusha |
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| 10 | Andrea Guardini | Farnese Vini |
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| General Classification after Stage 2 | |||
|
| rider | team | time |
| 1 | Matthew Harley Goss | GreenEdge | 6:21:47 |
| 2 | André Greipel | Lotto Belisol | + 0:02 |
| 3 | André Greipel | Lotto Belisol | + 0:08 |
| 4 | Theo Bos | Rabobank |
|
| 5 | Francesco Chicchi | Omega Pharma-Quickstep | + 0:12 |
| 6 | Filippo Baggio | Utensilnord |
|
| 7 | Mark Renshaw | Rabobank |
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| 8 | Valentin Iglinskiy, | Astana |
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| 9 | Alessandro Petacchi | Lampre-ISD |
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| 10 | Alexey Tsatevitch | Katusha |
|
