Tour of Turkey: Di Corrado solos to win

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Andrea Di Corrado (Colnago-CSF Inox) soloed to victory in the 5th stage of the Presidential Tour of Turkey, attacking out of a six-man escape group. The remains of the break crossed the finish line 40 seconds later, with second place going to Jonas Jorgensen (Saxo Bank) and third to Jerome Cousin of Europcar. The peloton had cut the gap from a high of nearly 15 minutes to a mere 1:27, with Matteo Pelluchi of Europcar winning the sprint of the peloton.

Ivaïlo Gabrovski of Konya Torku Seker Spor easily defended his overall lead. It was the first professional win for the first-year pro Di Corrado.

The 5th stage was an early one, starting shortly after 10 am to cover the day's 178 km. Things started off slowly, but by km 20, a six-man group had established a 2:30 lead.

Dimitriy Gruzdev (Astana), Jonas Jorgensen (Saxo Bank), Sebastien Duret (Bretagne-Schuller), Andrea Di Corrado (Colnago), Jerome Cousin (Europcar), and Alfredo Balloni (Farnese) took off and kept on going. Their lead topped out with 14:50, and then began coming down, with various teams leading the chase.

It was a rolling course, with only one ranked climb at km 53.8, won by Di Corrado ahead of Jorgensen and Duret.

Duret was the highest-placed of the riders in the break group, only 5:17 down, which was enough of a reason for team Konya Torku Seker Spor to give chase and cut the gap. With 24km to go they had accomplished their task, as the gap hovered around 5:10.

In fact, the gap had come down so rapidly that the sprinters' teams hopes of catching the escapees and having a mass sprint grew. Argos-Shimano, with Marcel Kittel in its ranks, moved to the head of the field to pick up the pace.

With 15 km to go, the gap was a mere 3:13, and Jorgensen took off from the lead group. The rest followed, though, and they were visibly nervous about the on-coming peloton. Cousin and Balloni jumped with 13km to go, and quickly distanced their former break companions. But within 3km they all came together again, to await the next attack.

Di Corrado promptly took off at the 10 km marker, and the others were slow to react, finally letting him go. The field continued to give furious chase as well, but they had left it too late.

"It was a long but also very hot stage," said race leader Ivaïlo Gabrovski. "It went according to plans except for the gap with the break, which reached 15 minutes after 50km. But the peloton reacted and I was never worried. My team worked well, other teams worked well too.

"The attack by AG2R riders on the last hill did not worry me either. I’m getting closer to final victory. There is one day less to defend the jersey."