Niemiec solos to opening stage win at Tour of Turkey

ISTANBUL—A decisive attack with less than 40 kilometres to go sealed the deal for Poland’s Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) as he rode off to a solo win on what was considered as an idyllic sprint stage opportunity for André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) at the 52nd Presidential Tour of Turkey (UCI 2.HC).

Greipel, whose very first of his 10 stage wins in Turkey came after a 5.8km time trial on the same streets in 2010, entered the race in old town Istanbul as a heavy pre-race favourite in large part due his team being one of only two WorldTour (WT) teams headlining a small 16-team field – down from 21 last year, including six WT squads.

An early crash inside the first 10 kilometres, which included a handful of riders including Greipel and last year’s stage 3 winner Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), who also crashed along the same course on the eighth and final stage last year, caused a restart with 113 of the 129.2km remaining.

Both were able to resume the race, but according to Greipel’s teammate Adam Hansen (AUS), who claimed intermediate sprint points with 75km remaining after he and Luís Mas (Caja Rural-Seguros Rga) bridged the gap to join Niemiec, Nikita Stalnov (Astana City) and Rémy Di Gregorio (Delko Marseille Provence), the sprint victory was no longer on the 33-year-old German’s mind after losing skin to start the race.

“I think the peloton thought André wanted to sprint and that we would close it,” Hansen told Eurosport after the race. “They thought we were bluffing but we were serious.

“André was involved in the crash to start, so he didn’t want to risk it further.”

Aside from Niemiec, another beneficiary from Lotto’s reluctance to work, was Italian sprinter Marco Zanotti (Parkhotel-Valkenburg), who is fresh off a points win at Tour du Loir et Cher E Provost (2.2) and finished third behind José Gonçalves (Caja Rural-Seguros Rga) and Niemiec on the day.

“My team for sure didn’t want to do any work to close the gap, because we are one of the smaller teams here,” Zanotti explained to Eurosport. “We were all thinking Lotto would could close the gap and bring the bunch together for the sprint for Greipel, but they didn’t do it after crash in the beginning.

“But in the end, it was a good day for me and I am really happy to make the podium for myelf and my team, who worked really hard to put me in the right position at the bottom of the finish.”

Niemiec joined the early four-rider break, which included Stalnov, Di Gregorio and Gonçalves with 103km to go and he never looked back.

“The stage was supposedly for sprinters and we expected the sprinters to win the race,” said the 36-year-old race leader, who’s last win came on stage 15 of the 2014 Vuelta a España. “I managed to surprise everyone, and I don’t know how I did it.

“It’s a great pleasure after I had two years without a victory, and it’s a great pleasure because this race is very important for the Lampre-Merida team. It’s important for our sponsor in Turkey and because as a team we haven’t won much yet this year.

“We had won this race last year with Kristijan Durasek (CRO) and we wanted to do well again – at least the fist day has gone to perfection.”