Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) won the fourth, and toughest, stage of the Tour of Turkey between Marmaris and Pamukkale with a late sprint to the line. The Italian Ale-Jet passed Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp) right on the line, when the Pole thought he might have got it himself, as he burst from the chasing pack. Alexander Efimkin (Team Type 1-Sanofi Aventis) finished third, not far behind.
"In the early stages of the Tour of Turkey something went always wrong and so I could not achieve a victory, but today I was willing to give value to the support that I always receive by my team mates," said Petacchi afterwards. "So, I made sure I started my sprint at the best moment and, since the characteristics of the road in the last kilometers were suitable for me, I could perform a very good sprint."
After a flurry of early attacks the high speed of the race saw the peloton split into four pieces before it had even reached the first category Sakar Pass, after 36km. The front section, numbering less than fifty riders, began to pull away from the rest and the gap opened wider, and wider over the hilly parcours.
Midway through the 209km course Thibau Pinot (FDJ) and Andrey Zeits (Astana) escaped from the front group, and before long they were joined by Tom Peterson (Garmin-Cervélo), Cameron Wurf (Liquigas-Cannondale), Aleaxandr Dyachenko (Astana), Julien Fouchard (Cofidis), Francis Mourey (FDJ) and Rubens Bertogliati (Team Type 1-Sanofi Aventis).
The eight riders managed to open up a lead of two minutes with 55km to go, but several teams had missed the break and were working to bring them back. Lampre-ISD was one of the hardest working teams, with Petacchi himself aiding the chase.
With 32km to go Fouchard attacked the lead group and set off alone; meanwhile, behind him, Svein Tuft (Spidertech p/b C10) broke clear of the chasing group on a downhill section and joined up with the remains of the front group. A few kilometres later, when it was plain that the chasing group was soon to catch up with the breakaway, Pinot also attacked and tried to make it across to Fouchard.
Tuft, having only just joined the lead group, went with the FDJ rider and, when Pinot was unable to carry on, the Canadian made it across to the lone Cofidis rider.
The rest of the breakaway was soon absorbed by the chasers, leaving just Fouchard and Tuft ahead; with 20km to go on the stage, the two riders led the chasers, now led by Astana, by 1’10”, and managed to hold that advantage, only losing two seconds in the next 10km; with 10km to go their advantage was still 1’08”, but the chase now began with earnest.
With 5km to go the duo had just 30 seconds advantage over the FDJ-led pack. At 4km to go it had fallen to 23 seconds Fouchard attacked, but Tuft was the fresher of the two riders and managed to pull him back without too much difficulty.
With just over 1km to go, and with the chasing group breathing down their necks, Fouchard went again. This time Tuft could not respond but, on the sharp drag to the line, the peloton now had them and the breakaway was all but over.
As Fouchard was about to be caught Anthony Roux (FDJ) burst out of the front of the pack; the Frenchman looked like he may have done it, but with a few hundred metres still to go Huzarski made his move, with Efimkin just behind him and went past with just 200m remaining
In the final 100 metres Petacchi shot from the front of the group and bore down on Huzarski as he approached the line. Just short the Polish rider looked over his right shoulder to check that there was no one on his tail; Petacchi was only his left though and went past just as Huzarski was about to cross the line.
Huzarski did not quite lift his arms in mistaken triumph, but was definitely surprised to see the blue-fuchsia jersey of the Italian sprinter go by, and he banged his bars in frustration as he saw his victory disappear.
Efimkin crossed the line just a second behind the two of them, with the rest of the front group crossing in his wake.
Vataliy Buts (Lampre-ISD) eventually led the main peloton home, to take 53rd place, 46’54” behind. Technically this should have meant that two-thirds of the riders in the race were eliminated, but by virtue of strength in numbers they will all be allowed to start in the morning.
Despite losing out on the stage victory by so narrow a margin, Huzarski does have the consolation of taking the race lead.