André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) won stage 2 of the Tour of Turkey in a bunch sprint after 181km between Kusudasi and Turgutreis. The German, already wearing the leaders jersey after winning yesterday’s stage 1 time trial, beat Angelo Furlan (Lampre-Farnese Vini) into second and Claudio Cucinotta (De Rosa-Stac Plastic) into third.
“I said my goal was reached after winning stage 1 but I also wanted to win a bunch sprint”, said Greipel afterwards. “This is due to a great team work again.”
“There was a head wind and one more little climb with one kilometre to go, so I had no doubt that my five or six remaining team-mates would bring everything back,” the German sprinter continued. “In the final kilometre, I just had Mark Renshaw with me. I told him to wait. He went to the front with 500 metres to go and I waited for someone else to open the sprint.”
After a fast start, under clear sunny skies, four riders escaped at the 30km mark. The quartet was made up of Diego Caccia (ISD-Neri), Cristiophe Kern (Cofidis), Philipp Ludescher (Vorarlberg-Corratec) and Tomasz Marczyinski (CCC-Polsat-Polkowice). The leaders managed to build an advantage of 5’15” before the led peloton began to pull them back. The ISD-Neri team finally reeled them in with 43km to go.
There followed a counter attack from Jorge Giacinti (Scott-Marcondes), Yukihiro Doi (Skil-Shimano) and Oscar Gatto (ISD-Nerv), but they too were pulled back with 11km remaining. The next attack was a solo bid for the finish from Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) with 9km to go, but he only lasted until for 5km, as the sprinters teams led the peloton.
With 10 seconds time bonus on the stage, Greipel increases his lead over Van Garderen to 16 seconds.
Result stage 2
1. André Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia
2. Angelo Furlan (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini
3. Claudio Cucinotta (Ita) De Rosa-Stac Plastic
4. Mattia Gavazzi (Ita) Colnago-CSF Inox
5. Francisco Ventosó '(Spa) Carmiooro-NGC
6. Michele Merlo (Ita) Footon-Servetto
7. Francisco Pacheco Torreś (Esp) Xacobea-Galicia
8. Giorgio Brambila (Ita) De Rosa-Stac Plastic
9. Krzysztof Jezowski (Pol) CCC-Polsat-Polkowice
10. Oscar Gatto (Ita) ISD-Neri
Standings after stage 2
1. André Greipel (Ger) Htc-Columbia
2. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Columbia @ 16s
3. Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Liquigas-Doimo @ 19s