Tour of Turkey 2016 – Stage 1 [FULL STAGE]

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April 24, 2016

Tour of Turkey 2016 – Istanbul – Istanbul – 138 km

The 2016 Presidential Tour of Turkey is a road cycling stage race that will take place in Turkey between 24 April and 1 May 2016.

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April 24, 2016

Tour of Turkey 2016 – Istanbul – Istanbul – 138 km

The 2016 Presidential Tour of Turkey is a road cycling stage race that will take place in Turkey between 24 April and 1 May 2016. It is the 52nd edition of the Presidential Tour of Turkey and is rated as a 2.HC event as part of the 2016 UCI Europe Tour. The race includes eight stages; seven of these are moderately hilly, while Stage 6 ends with a summit finish at Elmalı. The defending champion is Lampre–Merida’s Kristijan Đurasek.

Born in Oswiecim 36 years ago, Przemyslaw Niemiec, the Lampre-Merida climber whose name means “German” in Polish, delivered a surprise victory in Istanbul at the Tour of Turkey as he reached the mythical district of Sultanahmet with a 16-second lead over the peloton after breaking away early.

“It’s a surprise indeed,” Niemiec admitted. “At the start, everybody expected a bunch sprint finish but when my breakaway companions decided to give up as our advantage was reduced to 40 seconds, I decided to continue. I’m glad I did. This victory is important for me and for Lampre-Merida. I had a lot of bad luck last year and as a team, we didn’t have the best early part of the season this year and we came here to do well after we won the Tour of Turkey with Kristijan Durasek last year.”

The Croatian started as a defending champion with a suspected fractured rib after he badly crashed at the Giro del Appenino one week ago. Therefore, Lampre-Merida could use diverse tactics in stage 1, the ultimate one being to set up a sprint finish for Sacha Modolo who is the most notable sprinter of this event after André Greipel.

The race started with a 17km-long neutralization due to crashes that notably affected Carlos Barbero (Caja Rural-RGA) who was one of the stage’s favourites and Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi-Polkowice) who was forced to pull out of the Tour of Turkey one year ago due to an injury on the last day in Istanbul while he was second on GC.

Following the second start proper with 113km of actual racing to go, a four-man breakaway took shape including Rémy Di Gregorio (Delko Marseille Provence), Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida), Nikita Stalnov (Astana City) and José Gonçalves (Caja Rural-RGA). But the latter suffered a mechanical in the only categorized climb of the day after 29km covered. Di Gregorio crested the summit first and therefore secured the King of the Mountains lead after winning that same price at the Tour La Provence in February and the Criterium International.

“I’d like to do it here as well but it’s too early to make it a goal,” the Frenchman said. “This is new to me. I don’t know the climbs in Turkey.”

Adam Hansen (Lotto-Soudal) and Lluis Mas (Caja Rural-RGA) made it across to the three remaining leaders with 90km to go. Setting the pace of the peloton, the Southeast-Venezuela team stabilized the time gap around two minutes until they received some help from CCC Sprandi Polkowice with 57km to go. Niemiec rode away solo with 39.5km remaining on the scenic laps around Istanbul’s historical district of Sultanahmet. Hansen, Mas, Di Gregorio and Stalnov waited for the peloton.

“I don’t know if the people in the peloton didn’t know that he was still away or if they didn’t know who Niemiec is but he’s a top rider,” commented Mas, who won the classification of the beauties of Turkey last year and took the white jersey again after winning the sprint on the Galata bridge. “With three minutes lead, of course he could win the race.”

Interestingly, Niemiec made a bigger gap for himself than previously with his four breakaway companions. His advantage reached three minutes with 23km to go while Southeast-Venezuela couldn’t find any ally to bring the peloton back onto the Polish rider. Niemiec still had 2.45 lead with 15km to go so the way was paved for a surprise victory near the Blue Mosque.

The Lotto-Soudal team finally showed up in the first positions of the peloton with 8km to go but it was too late to catch the lone leader.

“I dedicate this victory to my wife and my two children, the third one is due to arrive in September,” said Niemiec, who kissed his two arms as a victory salute in Sultanahmet. Gonçalves rode strongly to second place to make it up for his disappointment of being ejected from the early breakaway.

The new format of the 2.HC event attended by UCI president Brian Cookson enabled the continental team Parkhotel Valkenburg to make the podium ceremony with Marco Zanotti, third.

“Had it been a bunch sprint for the win, I might have won,” Zanotti said. “I love those finales with 90° curves like this. Anyway, to make the podium in such an important race is great. We’re a small team and this is the biggest race we get access to. It’s a great incentive for racing well.”

Results :

1 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre – Merida 3:10:18
2 José Gonçalves (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:00:11
3 Marco Zanotti (Ita) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team 0:00:16
4 Mauro Finetto (Ita) Unieuro Wilier
5 Matteo Malucelli (Ita) Unieuro Wilier
6 Grzegorz Stepniak (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
7 Manuel Belletti (Ita) Southeast – Venezuela
8 Quentin Pacher (Fra) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
9 Daniele Colli (Ita) Nippo – Vini Fantini
10 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
11 Alberto Cecchin (Ita) Team Roth
12 Enrique Salz Unzue (Spa) Southeast – Venezuela
13 Jasper Ockeloen (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team
14 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre – Merida
15 Vadim Galeyev (Kaz) Astana City
16 Ahmet Orken (Tur) Torku Sekerspor
17 Ricardo Vilela (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
18 David Arroyo (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
19 Jaime Roson (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
20 Greg Henderson (NZl) Lotto Soudal
21 Yuriy Chsherbinin (Kaz) Astana City
22 Simone Petilli (Ita) Lampre – Merida
23 Domingos Gonçalves (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
24 Galym Akhmetov (Kaz) Astana City
25 Riccardo Stacchiotti (Ita) Nippo – Vini Fantini
26 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Soudal
27 Christophe Laborie (Fra) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
28 Leszek Plucinski (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
29 Karel Hnik (Cze) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team
30 Nazim Bakirci (Tur) Torku Sekerspor
31 Mustafa Sayar (Tur) Torku Sekerspor
32 Nikita Stalnov (Kaz) Astana City
33 Davide Rebellin (Ita) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
34 Fatih Keles (Tur) Torku Sekerspor
35 Peter Schulting (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team
36 Sylwester Szmyd (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
37 David Belda Garcia (Spa) Team Roth
38 Jochem Hoekstra (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team
39 Michal Podlaski (Pol) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team
40 Sven Van Luijk (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team
41 Pawel Cieslik (Pol) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team
42 Daniel Diaz (Arg) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
43 Antonio Piedra Perez (Spa) Funvic Soul Cycles – Carrefour
44 Giovanni Carboni (Ita) Unieuro Wilier
45 Viesturs Luksevics (Lat) Alpha Baltic – Maratoni.Lv
46 Jan Hirt (Cze) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
47 Ilia Koshevoy (Blr) Lampre – Merida 0:00:30
48 Adrian Banaszek (Pol) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:00:32
49 Jakub Mareczko (Ita) Southeast – Venezuela
50 Rémy Di Gregorio (Fra) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
51 Alessandro Malaguti (Ita) Unieuro Wilier 0:00:34
52 Pawel Charucki (Pol) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:00:36
53 Mikel Aristi (Spa) Delko Marseille Provence KTM
54 Dominik Hrinkow (Aut) Hrinkow Advarics Cycleangteam
55 Kristijan Durasek (Cro) Lampre – Merida
56 Andris Smirnovs (Lat) Alpha Baltic – Maratoni.Lv
57 Alexander Meier (Ger) Hrinkow Advarics Cycleangteam
58 Ahmet Akdilek (Tur) Torku Sekerspor
59 Anton Kuzmin (Kaz) Astana City
60 André De Souza Almeida (Bra) Funvic Soul Cycles – Carrefour
61 Simone Ravanelli (Ita) Unieuro Wilier
62 Enrico Salvador (Ita) Unieuro Wilier
63 Nicolas Baldo (Fra) Team Roth
64 Xu Gang (Tpe) Lampre – Merida
65 Matvey Nikitin (Kaz) Astana City
66 Pablo Urtasun (Spa) Funvic Soul Cycles – Carrefour
67 Marco Molteni (Ita) Unieuro Wilier
68 Maxim Satlikov (Kaz) Astana City
69 Mateusz Taciak (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
70 Giovanni Pedretti (Ita) Unieuro Wilier
71 Manabu Ishibashi (Jpn) Nippo – Vini Fantini 0:00:43
72 Kaspars Sergis (Lat) Alpha Baltic – Maratoni.Lv 0:00:46
73 Raphael Hammerschmid (Aut) Hrinkow Advarics Cycleangteam
74 Florian Gaugl (Aut) Hrinkow Advarics Cycleangteam
75 Lucas Gaday Orozco (Arg) Team Roth 0:00:52
76 Grischa Janorschke (Ger) Team Roth 0:00:57
77 Colin Stüssi (Swi) Team Roth
78 Lukas Jaun (Swi) Team Roth
79 Nurbolat Kulimbetov (Kaz) Astana City
80 Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Lotto Soudal
81 Kazushige Kuboki (Jpn) Nippo – Vini Fantini 0:01:05
82 Feritcan Samli (Tur) Torku Sekerspor
83 Muhammet Atalay (Tur) Torku Sekerspor
84 Antonio Viola (Ita) Nippo – Vini Fantini
85 Branislau Samoilau (Blr) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:01:17
86 Kristofers Racenajs (Lat) Alpha Baltic – Maratoni.Lv 0:01:20
87 Liam Bertazzo (Ita) Southeast – Venezuela 0:01:23
88 Daniel Staniszewski (Pol) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:01:24
89 Frederik Frison (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:01:35
90 Bram Nolten (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team 0:01:41
91 Remco Te Brake (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team
92 Stig Broeckx (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:02:05
93 Jelle Wallays (Bel) Lotto Soudal
94 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) Lampre – Merida 0:02:07
95 Chun Kai Feng (Tpe) Lampre – Merida
96 Francisco Chamorro Paiva (Arg) Funvic Soul Cycles – Carrefour 0:02:12
97 Nicola Toffali (Ita) Team Roth
98 Massimo Graziato (Ita) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team 0:02:47
99 Luis Mas Bonet (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:00:16
100 Alex Correia Diniz (Bra) Funvic Soul Cycles – Carrefour 0:02:54
101 Norbert Banaszek (Pol) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team
102 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
103 Gert Dockx (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:03:00
104 Nikolay Mihaylov (Bul) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:03:04
105 Fredrik Strand Galta (Nor) Delko Marseille Provence KTM 0:03:22
106 Eugert Zhupa (Alb) Southeast – Venezuela 0:04:27
107 Mirko Tedeschi (Ita) Southeast – Venezuela
108 Eduard Michael Grosu (Rom) Nippo – Vini Fantini
109 Matteo Draperi (Ita) Southeast – Venezuela
110 Andreas Graf (Aut) Hrinkow Advarics Cycleangteam 0:05:23
111 Andrea Dal Col (Ita) Southeast – Venezuela 0:08:09
112 Roberto Pinheiro (Bra) Funvic Soul Cycles – Carrefour 0:27:51
113 Nathan Riberiro Mahler (Bra) Funvic Soul Cycles – Carrefour
114 Rasim Reis (Tur) Torku Sekerspor
115 Valters Cakss (Lat) Alpha Baltic – Maratoni.Lv
116 Ansis Bremanis (Lat) Alpha Baltic – Maratoni.Lv 0:28:37
DNF Carlos Barbero (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
DNF Magno Prado Nazaret (Bra) Funvic Soul Cycles – Carrefour
DNF Yuma Koishi (Jpn) Nippo – Vini Fantini
DNF Nicolas Marini (Ita) Nippo – Vini Fantini