It is not unusual that André Greipel (HTC-Highroad) wins a bike race, but his win in the prologue of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey was different than the usual bunch gallop the German likes to take. Greipel prevailed in the 5.8km prologue in the streets of Istanbul, beating teammate Tejay van Garderen and Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas) by six and nine seconds, respectively.
Greipel had a time of eight minutes and forty seconds on the challenging parcours in the densely populated Turkish city. HTC-Columbia dominated the day, placing five riders in the top 10. Frantisek Rabon and Jan Ghyselinck finished fifth and sixth, Bert Grabsch was ninth.
Greipel coped well with the conditions. "It was windy alongside the Bosphorus but that was the same for all the riders", he said after the stage. "I saved some energy for the climb." The cobblestone The ascent to the historical center of Sultanhamet ended in front of Haghya Sophia and was especially difficult with the cobble stones, although they were not nearly as bad as other riders encountered in France today.
Greipel only knows Turkey from vacationing there. "I went to the beach in Bilek before but it's my first time racing in this country. I came with the ambition of winning a stage but I didn't expect it would happen today. Sometimes I do good prologues, sometimes bad ones."
This time, he had special motivation. "I bet this morning with my room-mate Bert Grabsch. As he's been the world champion for time trial and he's still the German champion, I told him I'd do a better time than him but I didn't really believe what I said!"
Greipel will be on the lookout for more stage wins in upcoming field sprints. Monday's stage will take the 111 participants of the Presidential Tour of Turkey from Kusadasi to Turgutreis, a new finish just outside the touristic destination of Bodrum. It's expected to end in a bunch sprint, naturally making Greipel the big favorite.
Results prologue
1 André Greipel (Team HTC - Columbia) 00:08:40.450
2 Tejay Van Garderen (Team HTC - Columbia) 00:00:06
3 Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas - Doimo) 00:00:09
4 Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) 00:00:10
5 Frantisek Rabon (Team HTC - Columbia) 00:00:11
6 Jan Ghyselinck (Team HTC - Columbia) 00:00:13
7 Dominique Cornu (Skil - Shimano) 00:00:15
8 Christophe Kern (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) 00:00:15
9 Bert Grabsch (Team HTC - Columbia) 00:00:16
10 Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Liquigas - Doimo) 00:00:16