Our 22-year-old Dutch rider finished runner-up on the opening stage of the World Tour event.
The 55th Tour of Turkey – whose parcours mirrors the one of the inaugural edition, held in 1963 – rolled out from Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square and headed to Tekirdag, a small town located on the northern coast of the Sea of Marmara.
World Team Classification leader Deceuninck – Quick-Step took responsibility from the start and sent Eros Capecchi to the front of the field, who put in a tremendous amount of work and led the chase behind the six escapees, bringing them back ahead of the final classified climb, which came with 14 kilometers to go and averaged 4.3% over 2100 meters. There, neo-pro Remco Evenepoel – who is making his first outing since Bredene Koksijde Classic – stepped in and expertly shut down several attempts launched by riders who tried to give the peloton the slip on the fast descent to the finish.
The sprint was a nervous affair, but Deceuninck – Quick-Step muscled their way to the front of the field and put into Fabio Jakobsen, who came over the line second, behind Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe), giving the team its 45th top 3 finish of the season.
Fabio, who arrived at the start of the Tour of Turkey fresh off his impressive win at Scheldeprijs, gave his thoughts on the finale: “It was quite hectic, with the speed really high. The entire team did a great job today and not repaying them for their work with a victory leaves me disappointed. Max and Alvaro (ed. tenth on the stage) offered me a perfect lead-out, but I went a bit too early and that cost me in the end. On the other hand, the form and motivation are there and I will keep on fighting in the next stages.”
Photo credit: ©Justin Setterfield/ Getty Images
