After yesterday´s perfect start for BORA – hansgrohe, the team wanted to defend their leader jersey today. The second stage saw an early breakaway and again a bunch sprint, where BORA – hansgrohe sprinter Sam Bennett easily took another stage win. He expanded his lead and will wear the turquoise jersey again tomorrow during the third stage of the Tour of Turkey.
The second stage of the Tour of Turkey took the riders from Kumluca to Fethiye over 206km. This stage favoured the sprinters in the peloton with only two short climbs and again a flat finish. BORA – hansgrohe focused to defend the leader jersey of Sam Bennett.
From drop of the flag the day´s breakaway formed as a trio went up the road and built an advantage of several minutes. The squad of BORA – hansgrohe with leader Sam Bennett stayed in front of the peloton and took control over the race. The breakaway was gone for most of the stage.
With 40km remaining the escapees had an advantage of more than one minute, only 12 km before the finish, the peloton closed the gap and the expected bunch sprint was set up. Sam Bennett´s teammates did a stellar job to protect his lead, spent the day at the front. Especially Leo König and Michael Schwarzmann worked hard to close the gap. Like yesterday, Silvio Herklotz, Gregor Mühlberger, Alex Saramotins and Shane Archbold built the final lead out for Sam.
Next to Trek-Segafredo the BORA – hansgrohe squad headed into the final kilometres, where a tough fight about the best positions started. Like yesterday, Alex and Shane put Sam in a good position. Sam was on the wheels but went out earlier today. He took the victory with a significant gap to his opponents. Sam also defended his leaders jersey and will start the third stage of the Tour of Turkey tomorrow in in the turquoise leader jersey.
Enrico Poitschke, sports director of BORA – hansgrohe was more than happy with his second victory in Turkey, “It was a long day and we had headwind. We were able to control the race, especially Leo and Schwarzi did a great job. Everyone was again involved in this victory and Sam had good legs. It is really nice to win two stages in a row and defend the leaders jersey.”
