Bulgarian rider takes first-ever summit finish in race’s history
Five years after Ivaïlo Gabrovski won a smaller, 2.2-ranked edition of the Tour of Turkey, the Bulgarian was back on the podium again when he won today’s toughest stage of the 2012 event.
Riding with the Continental Konya – Torku Seker Spor team from Turkey, the 34 year old attacked eight kilometres from the summit of the climb billed as the country’s Alpe d’Huez, the 1850 meter Gogubeli mountain pass in Elmali.
And while WorldTour riders such as Alexandr Dyachenko (Astana), Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (GreenEdge) launched separate chases behind, they were unable to get back to the 34 year old.
Gabrovski hit the line a full one minute 29 seconds up on Dyachenko, and was a further handful of seconds ahead of his countryman Danail Andonov Petrov (Caja Rural) plus Arian Palomares Villaplana (Andalucia).
Defending champion Alexander Efimkin (Team Type 1 – Sanofi) came in sixth, two minutes 13 seconds back. Overnight leader Matt Goss (GreenEdge) conceded the turquoise leader’s jersey, as expected, finishing back in 73rd, 15 minutes 18 seconds down.
Gabrovski consequently takes over at the top of GC, holding an advantage of one minute 33 seconds on Dyachenko, his closest rival.
“We had marked down this stage and as I’m a reasonably good climber, I was the one to go,” he said. “I decided to try my luck eight or nine kilometres from the finish line as I knew the others would not move before the final three kilometres, which were steeper. I gave it my all, never looked back but I was still very surprised to gain time on the chasers in the climb.”
Petrov also expressed surprise, saying that he didn’t anticipate before the stage that he would end up taking third. “It was impossible to catch Gabrovski,” he said. “I’m really happy to finish on the podium in this stage. I was hoping to do well but was not expecting such a result.”
Vinokourov attacks again, but different break gets established:
Today’s race from Antalya to Elmali made history as it was the first-ever summit finish of the Presidential Tour of Turkey. After two mainly flat stages defined by sprints, it was the chance for the GC contenders to establish themselves and open gaps over those who will fare well on the flatter stages ahead.
The 152 kilometre stage moved off with almost all of those who finished yesterday’s second leg, with the exception of NetApp’s Andre Schulze. He is due to become a father very shortly.
There were a flurry of attacks and on the second category climb which came in the first ten kilometres, two of yesterday’s aggressors, Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Laszlo Bodrogi (Team Type 1 – Sanofi) attacked, along with Andy Cappelle (Accent.jobs – Willems Verandas). Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) and Europcar’s Sebastien Turgot bridged across but the quintet were reeled in two kilometers before the Turkish Beauty Sprint of the day, which came at kilometre 25.5.
Vladimir Isaychev (Astana) took the sprint, but the jersey passed to the shoulders of Matteo Fedi (Utensilnord – Named) as he was second in yesterday’s sprint.
The day’s big move went after thirty kilometres of racing, when Marco Bandiera (Omega Pharma Quick Step), Tony Hurel (Europcar), Florian Vachon (Bretagne Schuller), Karol Domagalski (Caja Rural) and Leonardo Giordani (Farnese Vini – Selle Italia) clipped away. This group increased to six when Juan Pablo Suarez (Colombia Coldeportes) bridged across soon afterwards.
Together the quintet eked out a lead of two and a half minutes by kilometre 40, and this went up to a maximum of five minutes some twenty kilometres later. However on the first category Saksaganli Beli climb (km 76), the gap to a fragmenting main bunch began to fall.
Still, the peloton was still four and a half minutes behind at the summit, where Bandiera beat Domagalski and Giordani for the prime.
The bunch raced on towards the final climb and had pared back the race’s lead to just 40 seconds by Elmali, the start of the ascent to the summit. Then, 32 kilometres from the line, Danish rider Chris Juul Jensen (Saxo Bank) and Albert Timmer (Argos Shimano) set off in pursuit and rode strongly to try to get across. They mopped up a dropped Domagalski and continued to inch closer, only to be themselves caught by the main bunch twenty kilometres from the finish. The leaders were reeled in ten kilometres later.
Gabrovski clipped away soon after that and immediately opened a lead. Other riders tried to get up to him but he drew further and further clear, hitting the line one minute 29 ahead of Dyachenko, his closest rival.
He’ll start tomorrow’s 132 kilometre stage from Fethiye to Marmaris a further four seconds clear of the Kazakhstan rider, who will have the full support of his Astana team in the days ahead as he tries to capture the jersey.
Despite his large lead, Gabrovski accepts there’s a lot of racing yet to come. “I don’t know whether it’ll be possible to keep my overall position. It is a difficult race to control.”
He can expect to come under fierce attacks in the five remaining stages, particularly as his team is much smaller than many of the others in the race.
The five time-Tour of Bulgaria victor has twice been blocked from racing due to high blood values. He missed out on the 2003 Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen and the 2005 world championships because of that, but was later given a green light by the UCI to resume racing.