Matteo Rabottini (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) took his first professional victory in the fifth stage of the Tour of Turkey between Denizli and Fethiye, as a breakaway made it to the finish this time. The 23-year-old Italian attacked the rest of a ten-man group with just over a kilometre left in the 221km stage to go and managed to hold on to the finish. Alexandr Efimkin (Team Type 1-Sanofi Avensis), who finished third on yesterday’s stage, went one better today as he made a late bid to catch Rabottini, but fell short by a wheel’s length; Enrico Magazzini (Lampre-ISD) was third.
After just 20km a breakaway group of nine riders formed, consisting of: Rabottini, Magazzini, Peterson, Cameron Wurf (Liquigas-Cannonale), Kenny Dehaes (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Andrey Zeits (Astana), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Ronan Van Zandbeek (Skil-Shimano) and Eloy Ruiz Pinto (Andalucia-Caja Granada).
Peterson, Wurf, Zeits and Pinot had all been in the long breakaway in the previous day’s stage and so would have been extra determined to succeed this time.
Peterson was the highest ranked rider in the group, just seven seconds behind Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp), so the American quickly moved into the virtual race lead.
Just a few kilometres later Dehaes lost contact with the other eight, to be replaced in the break by Alexandr Efimkin (Team Type 1-Sanofi Avensis) and Lucas Euser (Spidertech p/b C10). Efimkin was another rider to feature on stage four, the previous day, having finished in third place after a late bid for the line on the uphill finishing straight.
After 56km the lead of the group, which now numbered ten, had risen to 8’37”; Huzarski’s NetApp team was working on the front of the peloton but with ten riders ahead all working together, and ten teams behind not willing to help the chase, the men in blue and white were unable to stop the gap from growing.
The gap stayed fairly constant over the stage’s rolling mid-section but, with Caja Rural and Androni Giocattoli lending a hand, it had reduced to 7’40” with 47km to go. With the general rule about a peloton being able to pull back a minute every ten kilometres though, and with the course descending towards the southern coast, this meant that the breakaway was almost certain to make it to the finish.
In the next 15km or so the peloton managed to chip the deficit down to a little over seven minutes but, with 25km to go, and with the gap still at 6’55”, the cause was officially declared lost. The chasers on the front of the peloton took their feet off the gas and the gap began to rise once more.
With 10km to go the ten riders’ lead was up to 9’52” and, with 7km to go, it topped 11 minutes and was still rising.
With plenty of time in hand on the peloton, the ten riders now started to think of the stage finish, and began to examine one another.
The first rider to show his had was Efimkin who jumped with 5km to go; the Russian had Peterson glued to his back wheel though, and Wurf pulled everyone back on. Zeits was the next rider to try something, but his attempts to escape from the front position merely sped up the ten-rider string.
With 3km to go Ruiz Pinto saw the others slow down and launched an attack himself; the other nine simply looked at one another for a few seconds, allowing the Spanish rider to open a sizeable gap.
Mostly under the impetus of Wurf once more, the other nine riders gradually reeled in Ruiz Pinto; as he was about to be caught with just over a kilometre to go though, Rabottini shot out of the group. The young Italian flew past the slowing Ruiz Pinto just as he passed under the red kite and, with the others hesitating once more he looked to have done enough.
In the last few hundred metres Efimkin jumped from the chasing group; he ate up the metres between himself and Rabottini in double quick time and almost managed to pip the Italian on the line, just as Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) had done to Huzarski the day before.
Rabottini saw Efimkin coming though, and managed to wring out one last drop of energy to hold him off and take the victory by just over a wheel; Magazzini led the other riders over the line behind them.
Original breakaway member Dehaes finally led the peloton over the line 11’55” back, surely kicking himself for dropping out of the group so early on.
Peterson could only manage fourth on the stage but, as the best placed rider of the ten, he takes the race lead with just three stages to go.