Modolo gets much 'needed win' at Tour of Turkey

ALANYA, Turkey— In a hotly contested final two kilometres, Lampre-Merida sprinter Sacha Modolo survived organized lead-outs from fellow WorldTour squad Lotto Soudal, as well as UCI Pro Continental team Southeast-Venezuela to give his team its second win in the first four stages of the 52nd Presidential Tour of Turkey on Wednesday, April 27.

The 28-year-old Italian outsprinted four compatriots to claim his first win in 2016 – 39th of his career.

“Today’s win took a bit of slyness, because we left it late,” said Modolo in the post race press conference. “We all thought Lotto would come through, but they didn’t. With 700m to go, we almost stopped. One of the [Marco] Zanotti’s team went through, and I got onto his wheel.

“At 400m he stopped, and I thought it was all over, then [Manuel] Belletti went, and took two bike lengths, then I got back to him, and sprinted. It was non-linear, chaotic. It was very nervous, after yesterday, which was a horrible stage.”

Only 109 of the original 158 riders started the day in Seydişehir, a town and district of Konya Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, the 187km route to the central Mediterranean coastal resort town of Alanya in southern Turkey provided pristine weather conditions – a far cry from the blustery conditions from the day before.

“The weather was much kinder today and the team was very strong in the last two kilometres,” said Southeast sprint sensation Jakub Mareczko (ITA), who finished fifth behind his teammate Belletti, then Zanotti (Parkhotel-Valkenburg), Antonio Viola (Nippo-Vini Fantini) and Modolo. “But we arrive too early for the sprint, and I had only one teammate to help me.”

Mareczko’s teammate Liam Bertazzo (ITA) concurred.

“The problem was we worked too long,” Bertazzo admitted to Eurosport. “I left Mareczko and Belletti at 750m, so it was not so good because we have only a few opportunities and we have to do our best.

“It was the first time we try our train, so now we grow day by day and see our mistakes,” he continued. “I hope tomorrow we do better.”

For Modolo, the win comes at the perfect time with the Giro d’Italia looming early next month.

“I needed a win, especially now, because I have been preparing for the Giro,” admitted Modolo, who said he couldn’t find a victory at the Dubai Tour, Tour of Qatar, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo.

“Today, tomorrow, the penultimate stage, then the Giro to do well.”

With the peloton remaining close together for the majority of the first half of the race, valuable king of the mountain (KOM) became a priority. Ilia Koshevoy (Lampre-Merida) took the first KOM points of the day, a category 1 climb at 1,614 metres in elevation, at the 31.9-kilometre mark, ahead of Peter Schulting (Parkhotel-Valkenburg), teammate Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida), current mountains classification leader Rémy Di Gregorio (Delko Marseille) and Christophe Laborie (Delko Marseille).

The second KOM, a category 2 climb at 1,810m and just six kilometres later, was claimed by stage 1 winner and former race leader, Niemiec, who lost his turquoise leaders jersey after losing 22 minutes the day before to stage 2 winner and current leader Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural-Seguros) of Spain.

Mauro Finetto (Unieuro Wilier), Ricardo Vilela (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Koshevoy followed Niemiec in second, third and fourth respectively.

The third and final KOM came with 74km remaining, with Dominik Hrinkow (Hrinkow Advarics), Pawel Cieslik (Verva Activejet) and Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) taking points in order.

Di Gregorio maintains a slight grasp on the red mountains jersey with 12 points, just one point ahead of Lampre teammates Niemiec and Koshevoy, each with 11.

The only sprint points on offer came 21.9km later (134.9km) and were claimed by Alessandro Malaguti (Unieuro Wilier) with 3 points, Cieslik (2) and Hrinkow (1).

There was no change atop the general classification, as 26-year-old Bilbao still leads his teammates José Gonçalves (POR), who is the current points leader, and David Arroyo (ESP) by five and 11 seconds respectively.

The race stays along the coast on stage 5 for 189.3km from Alanya to Kemer, before the potential race-deciding finish atop Elmali (cat. 1) on stage 6.