Theo Bos (Rabobank) finished the 2012 Tour of Turkey the way he started it as he outsprinted the field in the eighth and final stage in Istanbul. The Dutch sprinter was the fastest of a depleted peloton, which had been reduced by a crash in the final three kilometres; a number of sprinters were taken down, or delayed, by the incident, but the Rabobank team was in front at the time and managed to avoid it.
Second to Bos was British neo-pro Andy Fenn (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), ahead of Dutch veteran Stefan van Dijk (Accent.jobs-Willems Verandas). The three led in the peloton at the end of the largely ceremonial 120.4km final stage.
“Tomorrow I’ll have a good feeling in the plane. As a team it was good. With Mark [Renshaw] as the last man it worked out perfectly for me,” he said after the stage.
Although his Rabobank team-mate Graeme Brown was brought down in a crash near the end of the race, both he and Renshaw avoided it and thus kept the stage bid on track. He said that he had a moment of concern when the sprint opened, but that things worked out fine.
“When Mark went, I knew it was good because he went really hard. But I was afraid he went too early,” he said. “In each lap we told ourselves to be careful not to go too early as there was a little bit of headwind and it was a little bit downhill, and maybe the bunch could come from the back.”
That proved not to be the case, though, and so he picked up his second win of this year’s race.
With the entire peloton - including those behind the crash - awarded the same time, Ivaïlo Gabrovski (Konya-Torku Seker Spor) confirmed his overall victory in the race. The Bulgarian, who grabbed the race lead after his victory in the third, and hardest, stage to Elmali, finished 1’33” ahead of Kazakh Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana), and 1’38” ahead of Bulgarian compatriot Danail Petrov (Caja Rural), to take the biggest win of his 12-year career.
“Everybody else wanted this jersey,” he said, describing the pressure. “Every day until today it was very hard. I can breathe now but I doubted everyday. Thanks to my efforts, thanks to my team, we manage to win this race. I was first in 2007, I won it again. I’m very happy.”
Bunch maintains control of breakaway move:
The stage started in Istanbul’s stunning Sultanahmet square, the race basking in sun and situated close to many historical buildings. The first action of the day came with an almost immediate attack from Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), who crossed the first Bosphorus Bridge in the lead. As the ever-aggressive Frenchman was in fifth overall, however, the Konya-Torku Seker Spor team chased him down.
After that, though, the four-man group of Vladimir Gusev (Katusha), Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Damien Gaudin (Europcar) and Ivan Stevic (Salcano-Arnavutkoy) was allowed to get away.
The group of four led the race across the second Bosphorus Bridge, from the city’s European to Asian side, and was 32 seconds ahead as it crossed the finish line after 23km, to start the first of eight 12.2km laps. With four laps to go, the gap reached its maximum of 3’25”, before the Rabobank and Argos-Shimano teams began to give chase.
Farnese Vini-Selle Italia, Lotto-Belisol, Lampre-ISD and Accent.jobs-Willems Verandas all took their turns in the chase and, as they crossed the line with just one lap to go, the four riders’ advantage was down to just 45 seconds.
Then with eight kilometres to go Trentin broke free of the other three leaders, hoping to match Omega Pharma-Quick Step teammate Iljo Keisse’s victory yesterday, but he was chased down and caught just two kilometres later.
Bardet made another attempt with four kilometres to go. However he too was rapidly closed down. The peloton sped into the final three kilometres, but some of those hoping to fight for the victory were foiled when a huge crash hit the peloton. Points classification leader - and four times stage runner-up in the race - Matt Goss (GreenEdge) was among those to come down.
Lotto-Belisol led into the final two kilometres, but Rabobank swept past as the line approached and led out Bos for his second - and the team’s third - stage victory.
Afterwards, Goss spoke with frustration at what had happened. “I got involved in that final crash. It’s like I said at the Tour Down Under: some riders seem to close their eyes and go for sprints with no respect for the others,” he said. “That crash has nothing to do with me. But it’s part of racing, I guess. I just have to be used to it.
“This is not the way I wanted to finish. I wanted to go home on a good note. Since Mark Renshaw led out instead of sprinting for himself, I keep the green jersey, I’m happy with that. Fortunately, I’m not injured by the crash and I can go to the Giro next week.”
Another who missed out on a stage win was Astana leader Alexandre Vinokourov. He rode aggressively and is gaining strength after his crash in last year’s Tour de France.
“We didn’t win a stage so we can’t be totally happy, but Alexandr Dyachenko’s second place and our team victory are satisfactions,” he said. “The Tour of Turkey is really a beautiful race.”