Tour of Turkey: Philipsen beats Greipel and Cavendish in Turgutreis

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Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) claimed his second successive victory on the Tour of Turkey when he beat André Greipel (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep) to win the bunch sprint in Turgutreis.

Philipen’s victory capped a fine afternoon’s work for Alpecin-Fenix, who smartly helped Jay Vine pick up a time bonus that moves him to within one second of the overall lead of José Manuel Díaz (Delko) with one stage remaining.

The penultimate stage of the Tour of Turkey was always likely to finish in a bunch sprint, but it was no procession for the fast men. After Astana Premier Tech had attempted to split the field on the early climb, the bunch splintered into echelons in crosswinds with a little over 50km to go.

Although the peloton eventually came back together, there was no shortage of willing attackers in the finale, though Greipel’s Israel Start-Up Nation managed to impose enough order to ensure a bunch sprint.

A short climb preceded an eye-raising, slightly downhill final kilometre. Mercifully, that potentially fraught finale was navigated safely. Philipsen was led out expertly by teammate Lionel Taminaux and once the Belgian hit the front, he always looked a likely winner.

Greipel and Cavendish gamely battled to get on terms, but there was nothing to be done. Philipsen took his second win in a row, while Greipel – just – held off Cavendish for second place.

Stanislaw Aniolkowski (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) continued a consistent week by beating Vincenzo Albanese (Eolo-Kometa) to fourth, but the top three were in a race of their own out in front. Philipsen took the decision to divest Cavendish of the green points jersey.

“With this speed, you really have to come fast from behind and go at the right moment. Then once you have the front, it’s very hard for the other guys to come over because it’s not decided on power but on leg speed,” said Philipsen, who voiced concern how the organisers had been allowed to include a downhill finishing straight.

“I don’t understand really why they put this finish line in the parcours. There was already a lot about downhill finishes. I still need to check my speed, but I think, with some risks, if anything happens, we could crash badly.”

Philipsen was already to the fore at the second intermediate sprint with 43km to go, where Díaz and his Delko team were inexplicably caught napping. Jay Vine, who began the day 4 seconds off the lead, clipped away in the company of Philipsen and German champion Marcel Meisen to take all of the bonus seconds. Vine led across the line and he will begin Sunday’s final stage just a second off Díaz’s overall lead.

“I think we’re dedicated to taking the seconds. It’s still going to be a nice final day tomorrow to fight for GC. We only have four guys left, but we’ll do our best,” said Philipsen, who pointed out that the penultimate stage had proved a demanding day in the saddle.

“It was a hard day, first with a hard climb, where Astana wanted to make the race hard. There were a lot of splits, but everything came back together. But then there were the crosswinds, so it was never really easy today.”

In the overall standings, Diaz leads Vine by 1 second ahead of the final stage, with Eduardo Sepulveda (Androni-Sidermec) only a further 5 seconds back in third. It may be a day for the sprinters, but the tight margins mean there will be frissons in the general classification.

How it unfolded

The rugged opening part of the stage saw the peloton take in a stiff category 1 ascent, where Astana Premier Tech were to the fore in whittling down the peloton, though the détente that followed allowed the dropped riders to make their way back on.

Out in front, four riders – Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo-Kometa), Danilo Celano (Sapura) and Julen Irizar (Euskaltel-Euskadi) – opened a maximum advantage of 4 minutes but that lead was gradually pared down as the day progressed.

After that demanding start, the race ignited all over again on an exposed section of road with 56km to go, where strong delegations from Israel Start-Up Nation and Uno-X helped to split the peloton into three distinct echelons.

With Mark Cavendish rather isolated in the front group, Deceuninck-QuickStep were always likely to help stitch the race back together, but it still made for a frantic few kilometres of racing. The four escapees were swiftly caught, while Alpecin-Fenix made good use of the confusion to send three riders off the front to mop up all the bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint.

After a lone attack from Mikkel Giesselman (SKS Sauerland NRW) petered out, Willie Smit (Burgos-BH) tried his luck with a lone effort. The South African established a lead of a half a minute or so at one point, but once the peloton came together behind, his lead began to shrink once again and he was caught with 23km to go.

Giesselman was again on the offensive in the final 20km, this time with Jokin Aranburu (Euskaltel-Euskadi) for company. The Basque pressed on alone after Giesselman sat up, entering the final 10km with 20 seconds in hand, but he too was pegged back soon afterwards.

The rolling run-in was difficult for any one team to control, and Shane Archbold (Deceuninck-QuickStep) sowed further chaos with a spirited attack with 6.5km left, just as the peloton stretched to breaking point.

The New Zealander’s determined effort was only snuffed out inside the final 2km, just as the road kicked up for the final time before the downhill run through the last kilometre. Israel Start-Up Nation took up the reins beneath the flamme rouge, but it was Philipsen who hit the front with 150m to go and the Belgian’s speed carried the day.