Tobias Lund Andresen ((Dsm-firmenich PostNL) emerged from a hectic finish to win stage 4 of the Tour of Turkey in Bodrum.
The Dane needed a late bike change but returned to the peloton and then timed his effort perfectly on the rising finish after Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) and the remains of the early break were caught in the final kilometre.
Danny Van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished second and Henri Uhlig (Alpecin-Deceuninck) third as other riders slowed each other in the search for the best wheel to follow.
Thanks to his stage victory and the time bonuses, Lund Andresen also took the race leader’s blue jersey, which he will wear during the 177.9km fifth stage from Bodrum to Kuşadası.
Lund Andresen was overjoyed to win his first professional race.
“The plan was that if Fabio made it over the climb, we’d go with him but he didn’t have the leg, so we made a nice plan for me and the team did an amazing job and I was able to take the win,” he said.
“It was a hard stage, with a lot of climbing. The roads are not the best, so it’s almost like riding cobblestones the whole day. It was grippy but that was quite nice for me.”
A breakaway again tried to foil the sprinters’ teams and the peloton, with eight riders going away with 110 km to race of the 137.9 km stage.
They worked well together and extended their lead to close to 2:00 but then Polti-Kometa and Astana Qazaqstan drove the chase. The Italian team was keen to defend Giovanni Lonardi’s race lead, while Astana Qazaqstan rode for stage 2 winner Max Kanter.
The hilly profile of the stage again ruled out the pure sprinters, with Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan), Fabio Jakobsen (Dsm-firmenich PostNL) and others dropped from the peloton.
The break reduced to five riders over the final climb after 95 km but James Whelan (Q36.5), Calum Johnston (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Tarozzi, Owen Geleijn (TDT - Unibet) and Gianni Marchand (Tarteletto-Isorex) pushed on and held a lead of 40 seconds on the fast ride to Bodrum.
Whelan split the attack on a late climb with 10km to go, with only Tarozzi, Johnston and Marchand able to go with him. They attacked each other and the pace eased so the peloton closed the gap on the run-in to the finish.
Tarozzi refused to give up hope and attacked alone inside the final kilometre. He got a gap but then faded on the rising finish as Lund Andresen timed his effort to perfection.
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