Davide Ballerini (XDS-Astana) claimed his first victory in more than three years on stage 7 of the Tour of Turkey, triumphing in the rain on a day that saw certain aspects of the stage neutralised.
There was rain all day in Antalya, location of the start and the finish of Saturday's 152.8km stage, which, given the relative rarity of rainfall, made the city-centre roads treacherously slippery. That much was clear as early as the opening kilometres, when the riders had to take a slight left-hand bend over a set of tram tracks, and half the peloton ended up on the floor.
In the end, after lengthy mid-race discussions, the race organisers decided to neutralise the final 15km from a general classification perspective, meaning GC times would be taken at that point, just ahead of a descent down into Antalya. In addition, there would be no bonus seconds on offer at the intermediate sprints or the finish line.
As such, Sebastian Berwick's overall lead was relatively safe from attack, and his closest rival Ivan Sosa drifted off the back of the bunch for an easy run-in.
Although there was no GC battle, that was always likely to be a side-issue on a day expected to end in a bunch sprint, and that eventuality was allowed to play out in full force.
There were a couple of mishaps on the run-in but no crashes, and it was Ballerini who surged up the right-hand side of the road from far back to claim a victory that clearly meant a lot to him, by the way he celebrated.
He was followed across the line by two riders who left it even later. Marceli Boguslawski (ATT Investments) was approaching on the right but couldn't get there in time, while two-time stage winner Tom Crabbe (Flanders-Baloise) was advancing with even greater speed but started from too far back and had to settle for third place.
Overall, Berwick takes a five-second lead over Sosa into Sunday's final stage, which is also likely to culminate in a bunch sprint.
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