Etixx - Quick-Step rider Mark Cavendish won his second straight stage after the predicted bunch arrival of 182km Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey Stage 2 on Monday, winning by approximately a wheel after his team led him out perfectly in the final kilometers. He won despite a puncture with about 5 kilometers left to race.
Cavendish, in the turquoise leader's jersey, launched inside 200m to go as Etixx - Quick-Step had six on the front inside the final 5km, and three in front of the Manx Missile within the final 1.2km of the stage despite several teams doing their best to take control of the front. Mark Renshaw continued to lead out his teammate with less than 500m to go in the stage. Cavendish beat Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) and Nicola Ruffoni (Bardiani - CSF Pro Team).
The five leaders of the original breakaway were well controlled, and Etixx - Quick-Step played a role in bringing them back with 11.9km to go in the race.
The second consecutive stage win means a total of eight victories for the British rider in 2015, and the 21st road win for Etixx - Quick-Step in 2015.
Cavendish will wear the leader's jersey once again into Stage 3, but there will likely be a bit of a shuffle in the GC after the first climbing stage of the race. The third stage may even be the most decisive for the general classification out of all stages. The 165.3km stage includes several high category climbs, particularly the crucial Category 1 summit finale in Elmali. The climb is 11.5km in total distance with an average gradient between 6 and 7 percent, with the steepest sections in the later part of the climb.
"At a corner with about 5 kilometers to go my wheel went from me and I thought to myself 'that's not good' as I lost my balance," Cavendish said. "The wheel was spongy. It wasn't totally flat but it was a slow leaking puncture. I thought about stopping to get a new wheel, but we were already on our third guy of the train. If I stopped, we were one man short for Mark Renshaw. So I thought I'd give it a crack. I went easy for the final corners. I had confidence in my teammates. If they kept me in the front on the corners I'd be OK, and they did just that. They were really strong today and I was super impressed. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck rode on the front for the second straight day. These Belgian guys are super strong. Iljo Keisse and Nikolas Maes, they did a great job establishing the leadout. Then Fabio Sabatini went, and did a massive turn for more than a kilometer. He got us into the last corner, and then Tom Boonen went. Riders came from behind, but Mark Renshaw was able to find space. He had to go long and then I had to go long after him. But I'm super happy with what the team did today. I have to give a lot of credit to Mark Renshaw because he also punctured today with less than 20 kilometers to go. So he did a great job today considering the energy he used going into the leadout. As for me, I feel like I am about the same condition as I was this time last year. After a month without racing you can be sure you've got good form, but you can never know exactly where you're at. I knew yesterday before I even won that I was feeling good. I took an easy week after Gent-Wevelgem and then reset. Fabio Sabatini and I did some training in the last few weeks. So we were ready for this race. The whole team has shown we're focused and ready to win at Tour of Turkey."