André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) won his third stage of this year’s Tour of Turkey between Denizli and Fethiye. The big German outsprinted Mattia Gavazzi (Colnago-CSF Inox) and Kenny Van Hummel (Skil-Shimano) into second and third after 221km.
The longest stage of the race saw a breakaway group of six riders escape almost from the start. The group was made up of: Adriano Malori (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Christoph Sokoll (Vorarlberg-Corratec), Jose De Segovia (Xacobeo-Galicia), Rémy Pauriol (Cofidis), Aristide Ratti (Carmiooro-NGC) and Sergio Lagana (DeRosa-Stac Plastic). With Pauriol the best placed overall, just 4’59” on race leader Giovanni Visconti (ISD-Neri), the Italian’s team came to the front to keep the Frenchman in check.
The group was quickly allowed a lead of 3’30”, but was to get no further ahead as ISD-Neri set the pace behind. With 65km to go, with the lead at just under 3 minutes, the Colnago-CSF Inox team moved to the head of the peloton for its sprinters Gavazzi and Sacha Modolo. The two Italian teams were soon joined at the front by HTC-Columbia and Skil-Shimano, for Greipel and Van Hummel respectively.
With 26km to go the gap was below a minute for the first time but with the sprinters’ teams anxious not to catch the breakaway too soon, it was to stay at around that margin for a further 10km. With 13km remaining Pauriol attacked his breakaway companions in an attempt to resist the peloton and win alone; he was pursued by De Sergovia and Malori, but they were soon swallowed by the bunch and Pauriol himself was finally caught at 6km to go.
With a sprint now inevitable the peloton was led by almost the entire HTC-Columbia team, but several other teams were trying to set up their sprinters. The first rider to jump was Modolo of Colnago-CSF Inox, but he was no match for the German and Greipel took his third win of this year’s race.
With the race ending in a bunch sprint there are no changes to the overall classification and Visconti retains his overall lead.
Result stage 5
1. André Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia
2. Mattia Gavazzi (Ita) Colnago-CSF Inox
3. Kenny Van Hummel (Ned) Skil-Shimano
4. Angelo Furlan (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini
5. Vidal Celis Zabala (Esp) Footon-Servetto
6. Oscar Gatto (Ita) ISD-Neri
7. Elia Viviani (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
8. Michele Merlo (Ita) Footon-Servetto
9. Claudio Cucinotta (Ita) De Rosa-Stac Plastic
10. Rene Haselbacher (Aut) Vorarlberg-Corratec
Standings after stage 5
1. Giovanni Visconti (Ita) ISD-Neri
2. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Columbia @ 16s
3. David Moncutié (Fra) Cofidis, le credit en ligne @ 27s