Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) claimed his fourth stage of the 2023 Tour of Turkey and 19th of the year in an ultra-technical finale in Istanbul on Sunday, with Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) netting top spot in the GC overall.
Cees Bol (Astana Qazaqstan) pushed Philipsen all the way to the summit of the twisting, narrow finish. But the Belgian was able to stay ahead to end the race with another triumph. EOLO-Kometa’s Giovanni Lonardi took third, several bikelengths back on the two stage leaders.
Lutsenko had a trouble free final stage to capture the overall by 26 seconds over Bora-Hansgrohe’s Ben Zwiehoff and Astana teammate Harold Tejada. The Kazakh racer had clinched the victory on the ultra-difficult Babadag climb on stage 3 and then remained in control of the GC all the way to the finish five days later, for what is his 40th career win and ninth of 2023.
Meanwhile Philipsen ends his season with his 19th win of 2023, reinforcing his position as the most prolifically successful WorldTour pro of the year. But while visibly pleased with a final triumph on such a tricky uphill finish, the Belgian also said he was already looking ahead to next year - after a well-earned break.
“The goal here to win stages, we can look back at a successful Tour of Turkey and a successful season, so now I’m going to take some off and enjoy myself,” Philipsen said afterwards.
As for taking so many wins in one year he said simply, “It’s nice. It’s something I’ve worked hard for with the team, we all worked in the same direction and had the same goals, so now we have to build for next season and try to continue like this."
Regarding his win in Istanbul, Philipsen said the finale was “complicated, and it was was good that we did a little bit of a recon before. All the guys from the team knew what they had to do and we all did a perfect job to get into position. In the end I just had to stay safe and do my final in the last 300 metres.”
“I like these kind of finishes that are quite hard, you are already at the limit before you start sprinting, but my condition is still good, so I wanted to show it, and to take another win is always nice.”
The largely flat finishing segment of the final day of the Tour of Turkey always made it highly probable that the sprinters would rule the roost. But that kind of profile had not stopped mountains leader Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) from making a victorious solo bid on stage 7 and 24 hours later, Vine made another long-distance bid for unlikely glory.
Vine combined forces early on with Jakub Murias (Voster-ATS) and Mauro Verwilt (Tartaletto-Isorex) to ensure at the least that he would gain maximum points on the one classified climb of the day, a cat. 3 after 40 kilometres, and mathematically wrap up that ranking. Once that goal was achieved, it did not stop the Australian and his two breakaway companions from pushing on into the much flatter second half of the stage.
After clocking a three minute gap at the half way point through the stage, by the time the race returned to Istanbul their advantage had dwindled to 30 seconds and Murias was the first to throw in the towel. Verwilt then eased back, leaving Jay Vine fending off the peloton alone for a second day running, with around 20 kilometres left to race.
The time for GC was set to be taken with three kilometres to go, given the technical finale, but Alpecin-Deceuninck and Astana Qazaqstan were in no mood to let Vine beat the bunch for a second day running. Mark Cavendish was prominent working hard at the front of the chase, which finally proved successful at reeling Vine in with around 14 kilometres to go.
A powerful acceleration from the front of the pack by Bram Dissel (Netherlands) gained the Dutchman a gap of 100 metres as he dived into one of the many tunnels on the last part of the route. Bora-Hansgrohe provided assistance to suck him back in, and then Eolo-KOMETA gave the bunch some added impetus in the final run-in.
Philipsen was well positioned close to the front when the race turned almost 180 degrees into the last two kilometres, an incessantly twisting, cobbled uphill finish with some very narrow sections. A Q36.5 rider briefly made a bid for glory at the foot of the climb, then Alvaro Hodeg (UAE Team Emirates) zipped past to see if he could outrun Philipsen.
The Colombian's effort failed rapidly, but Bol had Lutsenko in person guiding him towards the finale, and he looked set to make a serious challenge. However, Philipsen was always waiting in the wings and he scorched past the race leader to open up a gap.
The Belgian star then sustained his front position with such strength that Bol could never get on terms and had to settle for his fifth top-four placing or higher in six days. Philipsen meanwhile, ended the race in the same way he had started it, with a win, and after victory in the Giro di Sicilia this spring, six months Lutsenko was able to celebrate his second stage race triumph of 2023.
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