Nobody can beat the DSM team in the Tour of Turkey and nobody can beat Tobias Lund Andresen in the mass finishes. The Dutch squad added its fifth success, while the Danish rider added his third in this Turkish round to his palmares, with only one competitive day left.
Once again the win came after a great team move. One more. Fabio Jakobsen seemed to be the one chosen to contest the sprint, with Andresen ready to launch him. But nothing could have been further from the truth. The Dutchman did not follow the launch, with Tobias Lund Andresen gaining a few meters of advantage that were decisive.
Mark Cavendish, who seemed to be his biggest rival, suffered a mechanical mishap with 300 meters to go that deprived him of any chance of victory. Astana had put the Briton in a great position, but the sprinter’s chain came off.
Timothy Dupont and Manuel Peñalver took advantage of the misfortune to take second and third place, respectively. The Spaniard took third place for the fourth time this season, but the win eluded him, showing that he has taken a step forward.
James Whelan (Q36.5) and Natnael Berhane (Beykoz) formed a duo at the head of the race from the first kilometers of the stage. Their adventure was marked from the start by the ambition of the sprinters. It was a perfect day for them and no team was going to leave the stage in the hands of the escapees.
The work at the front of the peloton proved useful until the breakaway was neutralized with 10 km to go. At that point the fight for the best position intensified due to a 180-degree turn that was sure to stretch the group in the final kilometer.
There was a crash in the middle part of the peloton, which did not affect the sprinters in their eagerness to take the victory. A success that once again went to DSM and Tobias Lund Andresen. Nevertheless, Frank Van den Broek is still wearing the leader’s jersey.
“It’s really crazy to have five wins in seven stages and lead the overall, everything is going well for us and we have a lot of momentum, it feels like a dream at the moment. The overall is also a priority for us, as well as the sprints. This morning everyone was trying to jump in the breakaway so we could get some bonus seconds, so we were all jumping to control that. An overall win here for us with Frank would also be huge. We’ll definitely give it our best tomorrow to try again,” Tobias told the media.
CLASIFICACIÓN 7ª ETAPA
| 1 | Tobias LUND ANDRESEN | Team dsm-firmenich PostNL | 02:50:58 |
| 2 | Timothy DUPONT | Tarteletto-Isorex | + 00 |
| 3 | Manuel PEÑALVER | Team Polti Kometa | + 00 |
| 4 | Sasha WEEMAES | Bingoal WB | + 00 |
| 5 | Sergei ROSTOVTSEV | Sakarya BB Pro Team | + 00 |
| 6 | Fabio JAKOBSEN | Team dsm-firmenich PostNL | + 00 |
| 7 | Enrico ZANONCELLO | VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè | + 00 |
| 8 | Marcin BUDZINSKI | Mazowsze Serce Polski | + 00 |
| 9 | Mattia PINAZZI | VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè | + 00 |
| 10 | Sebastian NIELSEN | TdT-Unibet | + 00 |
Source: www.ciclo21.com