photo credit @ Tour of Turkey
Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) continued his winning ways, after claiming stage 2 of this year’s Tour of Turkey – once again outsprinting his rivals in a hotly contested race for the line.
Indeed, after finding himself boxed in, Cavendish was delivered to perfection by his Etixx-Quick Step teammate, Mark Renshaw, to fend-off challenges from Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) and Nicola Ruffoni (Bardiani), to win his second stage victory in as many days. Race Highlights
Today’s stage got off to a fast start, with a small breakaway group containing Luis Mas (Caja Rural), Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN-Qhubeka) and Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty), riding clear after 23 kilometers of racing.
Shortley thereafter, Kevin De Mesmaeker (Novo Nordisk) and Federico Zurlo (Unitedhealthcare) set off in pursuit, with the duo eventually bridging themselves to the breakaway group.
From there, the five-rider strong escape group, succeeded in opening up a gap of 2.27, as they reached the 44 kilometer mark.
Back in the chase, things started to get serious, as the peloton began upping its pace in pursuit of the escapees, quickly reducing their gap to a much more manageable 45 seconds.
Meanwhile, back up front, Mas succeeded in beating Zurlo and De Mesmaeker, for the intermediate sprint points.
As the race passed through Manavgat, there was pause in the peloton, which allowed the escapees’ gap to stretch back out to 2.15. And, as the race reached the 74 kilometer mark, it had been extended to a sizable 4.47. And, a further 4 kilometers later, it had reached a concerning 5.37.
As a result, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Etixx-QuickStep) and Gert Dockx (Lotto Soudal) took to the front hard, leading the peloton’s pursuit in earnest.
With 78 remaining, the breakaway’s gap had been trimmed back to 3.40, and falling rapidly from there.
However, as the race reached the 70 kilomter mark, there was once again a lull in the peloton, which subsequently allowed the breakaway group’s advantage to go back out.
With 50 kilometers to go, a crash in the peloton further disrupted the chase, taking down Theo Bos, Jay Thomason, Kristian Sbaragli, Roberto Ferrari and Jan Ghyselinck. However, none of them were seriously hurt.
As the race reached the 45 kilometer mark, the peloton had managed to make up some lost ground on the leaders, as their advantage had been reduced to 2.10. And, 5 kilometers later, it had fallen to 1.55.
From there, a reinvigorated peloton, continued to whittle away at the gap, thereby reducing it to less than a minute during the final 20 kilometers.
With less than 12 kilometers to go, the peloton finally succeeded in closing down the breakaway, with Southeast, Tinkoff-Saxo, MTN-Qhubeka, Unitedhealthcare and Etixx-QuickStep putting their lead-out trains in place.
As the race entered into the final 2 kilometers, it was Drapac who was leading the peloton, only to lose ground to Jens Mouris (Orica-GreenEDGE), followed by Tinkoff-Saxo’s Pavel Brutt.
However, with the “flamme rouge” in sight, Tom Boonen, Mark Renshaw and Cavendish came to the fore.
Moments later Boonen took over the lead-out, but a determined Maximiliano Richeze and Sacha Modolo managed to pass him. And, for a brief moment, it seemed that Cavendish was about to get boxed in, but Renshaw executed a stellar maneuver, after finding a narrow gap to move Cavendish into place.
In turn, Modolo tried to counter, and actually got the jump on Cavendish. However, the Manx Missile proved to be fastest rider, after launching one of his signature sprints, that easily eclipsed the Italian rider, while Nicola Ruffoni narrowly edged out Sebastian Molano (Colombia) in the fight for third.
photo credits @ Twitter
Stage 2 Results GBR 1 CAVENDISH, Mark (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) 4:21:32 ITA 2 MODOLO, Sacha (LAMPRE – MERIDA) ITA 3 RUFFONI, Nicola (BARDIANI CSF) COL 4 MOLANO, Sebastián (COLOMBIA) ITA 5 COLLI, Daniele (NIPPO – VINI FANTINI) TUR 6 ORKEN, Ahmet (TORKU SEKERSPOR) SVK 7 KOLÁR, Michal (TINKOFF – SAXO) ITA 8 BELLETTI, Manuel (SOUTHEAST) ROU 9 GROSU, Eduard Michael (NIPPO – VINI FANTINI) ITA 10 SIMION, Paolo (BARDIANI CSF) BEL 11 JANS, Roy (WANTY – GROUPE GOBERT) ESP 12 BARBERO CUESTA, Carlos (CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA) GBR 13 MCLAY, Daniel (BRETAGNE-SECHE ENVIRONNEMENT) ITA 14 PIECHELE, Andrea (BARDIANI CSF) ESP 15 PRADES REVERTE, Eduard (CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA) ITA 16 APPOLLONIO, Davide (ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI) ITA 17 BENFATTO, Marco (ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI) BEL 18 VAN LERBERGHE, Bert (TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN – BALOISE) AUS 19 JONES, Brenton (DRAPAC) ITA 20 CHICCHI, Francesco (ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI) GER 21 GREIPEL, André (LOTTO SOUDAL) KAZ 22 TLEUBAYEV, Ruslan (ASTANA) ITA 23 MARINI, Nicolas (NIPPO – VINI FANTINI) BEL 24 SALOMEIN, Jarl (TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN – BALOISE) ITA 25 MARECZKO, Jakub (SOUTHEAST) NED 26 VERSCHOOR, Martijn (NOVO NORDISK) BEL 27 CAMPENAERTS, Victor (TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN – BALOISE) POL 28 KIENDYS, Tomasz (CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE) NED 29 BOS, Theo (MTN – QHUBEKA) DEN 30 NIELSEN, Magnus Cort (ORICA GreenEDGE)
General Classification after Stage 2 GBR 1 CAVENDISH, Mark (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) 7:39:30 ITA 2 MODOLO, Sacha (LAMPRE – MERIDA) ITA 3 RUFFONI, Nicola (BARDIANI CSF) SVK 4 KOLÁR, Michal (TINKOFF – SAXO) TUR 5 ORKEN, Ahmet (TORKU SEKERSPOR) ITA 6 BELLETTI, Manuel (SOUTHEAST) COL 7 MOLANO, Sebastián (COLOMBIA) ITA 8 BENFATTO, Marco (ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI) AUS 9 JONES, Brenton (DRAPAC) GER 10 GREIPEL, André (LOTTO SOUDAL)
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