Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) anticipated the final bunch gallop in Istanbul with a brilliant attack 1 km away from the finish to take his third stage win on the final day of the 54th Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey. The Irish sprinter surprised all of his rivals and resisted to claim victory ahead of Eduard Prades (Euskadi-Murias) and Jean-Pierre Drucker (BMC Racing Team). With the bonus seconds he took on the line, Prades edged Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team) in the overall classification. Prades and Lutsenko have the same overall
time but the Spanish rider wins thanks to a better score when adding their places on the six stages of the race.
The battle for the prizes still up for grabs in the final stage of the 54th Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey was a fierce one again. It caused the peloton to split in two groups after 30 km of hard racing. They soon got back together and no one had managed to break away in a first hour that saw the riders cover no less than 49 km! Grega Bole (Bahrain-Merida) summited first the cat-3 climb of the day ahead of the red jersey Aldemar Reyes (Manzana Postobon). The two riders were tied in the KOM standings but Bole was set to climb on the final podium, as he dominated the only cat-1 climb of the race, on stage 4.
A group of three riders eventually got away after the summit: Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing Team), Louis Vervaeke (Team Sunweb) and Preben Van Hecke (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise). They quickly opened a 2’ gap to the peloton while five chasers jumped from the bunch: Pawel Cieslik (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Nikolay Mihaylov (Delko Marseille Provence KTM), Beñat Txoperena (Euskadi-Murias), Christophe Masson (WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic) and Muhammed Atalay (Turkish National Team).
The two attacking groups got together on the Osmangazi bridge, the World’s fourth longest suspended bridge, just ahead of the intermediate sprint (km 83.7) dominated by Preben Van Hecke. The gap to the peloton had then stabilised around 3’15’’. Van Hecke pushed alone after the sprint and opened a 40’’ gap to his companions before being caught ahead of the last 50 km. The peloton, led by Team Katusha Alpecin, QuickStep Floors and Trek-Segafredo, was only 1’35’’ behind the race leaders at that point.
Sam Bennett’s Bora-Hansgrohe also participated and the gap was down to 1’ when the race entered the last 40 km. Muhammed Atalay and Christophe Masson were then dropped from the leading group. Mikhaylov and Van Hecke were also dropped as the race went 100 m under the Bosphore, through the Eurasia tunnel (km 134). The gap was down to 20’’ when Pawel Cieslik went first through the Beauties of Turkey sprint, 13.3 km away from the finish.
Louis Vervaeke tried to maintain the break alive as far as possible but he was caught with 6.5 km to go. It looked like a bunch gallop would decide the final results of the 54th Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey in front of the Blue Mosque but Sam Bennett surprised everyone with a spectacular attack 1 km away from the line. The Irish sprinter stormed to the line and Eduard Prades (Euskadi-Murias) finished second to take 6 seconds and win the overall classification!
