Manuel Belleti (Colnago - CSF Inox) stormed to victory in a reduced peloton in stage three of the Tour of Turkey, covering 166 kilometers between Bodrum and Marmaris. On the hilly and windy day, Belleti was faster than Roberto Ferrari (Androni Giocattoli) and Wesley Sulzberger (Française des Jeux). The difficult stage also eliminated the top three of the overall, with yesterday's leader Valentin Iglinskiy the best - but he was still 42 seconds behind Belleti in the end.
The climbing was hard, but the descent was just as tough. With the wind blowing from the sea, the peloton split in three on the run-in to Marmaris. A group of around three dozen riders created a six-second gap. That made the sprint hard to control by one team. Belleti did a fine job to hold off Ferrari and Sulzberger.
Team Type 1 - sanofi-aventis rider Daniele Callegarin sprinted to an honorable eighth place at the shores of the
Aegean Sea. Callegarin, from Cuggiono, Italy, was in the front group on the final descent into Marmaris as the peloton split apart on a four kilometer downhill with an average gradient of more than ten percent.
The finish was tricky. "The sprint was complicated, because we were on the beach and the wind was coming from the sea," Callegarin said. "The last few meters it came apart, but we were lucky to be at the front of the group after the last descent." He was one place ahead of André Greipel.
After a quick start with the bunch strung out quickly, four riders managed to slip away after 22km: Artur Vichot (FDJ), Yohan Bagot (Cofidis), Luis Laverde (Colombia ès passion) and Marek Canecky (Manisaspor). Astana controlled the pace, with the gap increasing to 4'55 at km 64, location of the first KOM. Laverde was ahead of Vichot, Canecky and Bagot.
At the sprint in Mugla, Canecky came over first, ahead of Bagot. The maximum gap was 6'05, 49 kilometers from the finish. At the second KOM, the order was exactly the same as on the first one: Laverde, Vichot, Canecky and Bagot. With 39km to go Canecky was dropped from the front.
The descent was furious, with riders unable to keep the brisk pace of the peloton. The leading trio still had two minutes with 20km to go, but were caught 11km from the line.
Results stage 3
1 BELLETTI Manuel COG ITA
2 FERRARI Roberto AND ITA
3 SULZBERGER Wesley FDJ AUS
4 PETACCHI Alessandro LAM ITA
5 NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas GRM LTU
6 VAN DIJCK Stefan VWA NED
7 MILAN JIMENEZ Diego CJR ESP
8 CALLEGARIN Daniele TT1 ITA
9 GREIPEL André OLO GER
10 BOUHANNI Nacer FDJ FRA
GC after stage 3
1 BELLETTI Manuel COG ITA 11h21'36
2 FERRARI Roberto AND ITA at 0'04
3 SULZBERGER Wesley FDJ AUS at 0'06
4 VAN DIJCK Stefan VWA NED at0'10
5 MILAN JIMENEZ Diego CJR ESP
6 FOUCHARD Julien COF FRA
7 CHIARINI Riccardo AND ITA
8 BAJC Andi MNS SLO
9 GARCÍA ECHEGUIBEL Egoitz CJR ESP
10 CALLEGARIN Daniele TT1 ITA