Sacha Modolo wins stage, Gonçalves holds lead in Tour of Turkey

With Portugal’s José Gonçalvés (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) another day closer to wrapping the biggest win of his career, the stage 7 finish in Marmaris belonged to Sacha Modolo at the 52nd Presidential Tour of Turkey on Saturday, April 30.

The 28-year-old Italian sprinter outmuscled compatriots Manuel Belletti, of the newly renamed Wilier-Southeast (formerly Southeast-Venezuela), and Marco Zanotti (Parkhotel-Valkenburg) to take not only the win, but also the lead in the points classification.

“Today was perfect,” said an exhausted Modolo in the post-race press conference. “The other day was perfect too, although the finish today probably suited me even better.

“A climb, a descent, a sprint: exactly what makes me a winner,” he explained. “It was not only me today by the whole team that made me a winner.

“Ferrari led me out in the sprint."

The victory marks Modolo’s second of the race – and season – after a sluggish start by both himself and his Italian –registered WorldTour team.

“We had a lot of bad luck in March and April,” admitted Modolo, who also won stage 4. “We all crashed in Milan-San Remo, but now it looks like luck is back on our side.”

With five members of the Tour of Turkey team set to race the Giro d’Italia, Modolo claims the week’s results have bolstered the team’s morale heading into the first grand tour of the season, which will include seven sprint opportunities for Modolo, as well as rivals Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep), Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) and André Greipel (Lotto Soudal), who recorded his 11th career stage win in Turkey before withdrawing after stage 5 to concentrate on Italy.

“This year there were some doubts, with the change of organisation, but it has gone all well,” Modolo told Eurosport. “You can’t tell the difference between one year and the next.

“There has been more stress in the bunch because of the hard stage on day two, which we were not used to, and the wind and rain on stage 3. But it has been a beautiful [Tour of Turkey]. My confidence is sky high, I don’t feel inferior to [Greipel, Kittel or Ewan] as a sprinter, but as a team we are not at their level.

“I’ll only have Ferrari to lead me out, so we’ll have to try to do what we can.”

Gonçalvés lifted the leaders jersey on stage 6 from teammate and stage 2 winner, Pello Bilbao (ESP), who abandoned the race 40km from the seaside finish today, after the 26-year-old Spaniard struggled on the category 1 queen stage to Elmali.

While UCI WorldTour and Pro Continental riders have taken centre stage at the eight-stage Tour of Turkey this week, Dutch Continental squad Parkhotel-Valkenburg’s Marco Zanotti (ITA) is quietly compiling results for his palmarés with three podiums in four bunch sprints.

According to sports director Paul Tabak, Zanotti’s three third-place finishes are just a small sample of what the team is capable of if given the finances and support to start more races the calibre of the hors catégorie stage race.

“These results mean very much because you are taking a lot of UCI points in the rankings and at the end of the year we want to go to Qatar,” explained Tabak. “It’s very important as all of Holland is looking at us on Eurosport and that is very nice as well.

“All we need to take things to the next level as a team is another sponsor, as more money will allow us to race more races against tougher competition like the Tour of Turkey, which is what will make both the team and Zanotti better.”

For the 27-year-old sprinter from Desenzano del Garda, there is not shortage of confidence, even if “faster riders” defeated him on the day.

“The first two riders are faster than me,” admitted Zanotti. “They are stronger. I tried to sprint, but I was on his wheels could only follow today.

“I know I will continue to improve with the team’s support and perhaps one day I will have a bigger team believe in me, but until then I always believe in myself and my teammates.”