Greipel remains unbeaten after stage 2

The prologue and stage 2 of the Presidential Tour of Turkey have had the same winner as Andre Greipel bagged his eighth win of the 2010 season in Turgutreis. In the bunch gallop, the world’s most successful cyclist this year preceded an Italian trio formed of Angelo Furlan (Lampre), Claudio Cucinotta (De Rosa) and Mattia Gavazzi (Colnago). “I said my goal was reached after winning stage 1 but I also wanted to win a bunch sprint”, the fast man from HTC-Columbia acknowledged. “This is due to a great team work again.”

As the finishing line was drawn on a slightly downhill road, the German sprinter reached a maximum speed of 92km/h! It wasn’t that easy for him to win as there were a few attacks towards the end. “There was a head wind and one more little climb with one kilometre to go, so I had no doubt that my five or six remaining team-mates would bring everything back. In the final kilometre, I just had Mark Renshaw with me. I told him to wait. He went to the front with 500 metres to go and I waited for someone else to open the sprint.”

Liquigas’ Francesco Chicchi did that effort and Greipel won by the length of a bike. Previously, stage 2 was influenced by four riders who managed to go clear in a false flat after only 13 kilometres of racing. They were: Diego Caccia (ISD), Christophe Kern (Cofidis), Thomasz Marcynski (CCC Polsat) and Hubert Schwab (Vorarlberg-Corratec). They secured a maximum lead of 5.20 but the gap between them and the bunch was kept around five minutes by the HTC-Columbia team. Marczynski won all three sprints counting for three different classifications: hot spot sprints, Turkish beauty and king of the mountains. “But sincerely, before the start I wanted to pull out of the race”, the Polish rider said. “I suffered bronchitis since the Lombarda Week and I felt fever this morning, so I decided to fight my sickness by breaking away. I kept coughing on my bike but I felt good after winning the first sprint.”

These four riders got caught with 43 kilometres to go under the action of the whole ISD team – minest Caccia – who tried to take profit from the crosswind. It was an unsuccessful experience followed by a counter-attack by Argentine Jorge Giacinti (Scott-Marcondes) who was helped by Japan’s Yukihiro Doi (Skil-Shimano) and Italy’s Oscar Gatto (ISD) to create a move of three competitors.

The courageous trio was caught with 11 kilometres to go. The most impressive attack in the finale was launched by Estonian champion Rein Taaramae 9km before the finish. He stayed away solo for 5km. That was a great spectacle by one of the world’s most promising prospect alongside the Aegean Sea.

Greipel remains the leader of the Presidential Tour of Turkey with an increased lead thanks to the time bonus. He now has 16 seconds advantage over his team-mate Tejay van Garderen and 19 over Maciej Bodnar from Liquigas. Stage 3 will take the riders from Bodrum to Marmaris.