Second on four out of the seven stages on this Presidential Tour of Turkey, Matt Goss will try once again to clock up his first win of 2012 on today’s final stage in Istanbul.
The riders have currently less than two laps left in today’s race, being 36 kilometres from the line, and a bunch sprint is expected to be the most likely outcome.
If so, Goss has a chance to take the points classification in style, but he’ll have to time things better than he has done thus far.
“The best way for me to get the green jersey would be to win the final stage,” he said yesterday evening. “I want to take this jersey home for the guys after the superb job they’ve done for me during the whole week.
“I’ve come second a few times here in Turkey. That’s not the best result, but at least I want to win the green jersey.”
Goss had a chance yesterday but missed out for two reasons. Firstly, Iljo Keisse held on to win despite crashing inside the final kilometre, with this meaning that Marcel Kittel was sprinting for second place. Secondly, the GreenEdge train wasn’t well positioned, and this was compounded when one of its most experienced riders went down on the same bend.
“We didn’t really get to the front today until the last corner where Robbie [McEwen] crashed,” said Goss. “Then we were too far back.”
Goss has taken a number of high placings this year, but is yet to grab a win. If today does indeed come down to a big bunch finish, he’ll be up against Mark Renshaw (Rabobank), Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) and Sacha Modolo (Colnago CSF Inox), who have all triumphed this week in big gallops, plus Marcel Kittel (Argos Shimano) and Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini Selle Italia), who are also aiming to clock up their first victory of this year's race.