CYCLING: Mountains make the difference in the Presidential Tour of Turkey

Presidential Tour of Turkey winner Felix Grossschartner (AUT)

The heavy climbs of the mountain stages are usually decisive in multi-stage races and so it was that the brutal fifth stage made the difference in the six-stage Presidential Tour of Turkey.

After Ireland’s Sam Bennett has won the first two stages and finished second and third in the following two, he had a 24-second lead over Austria’s Felix Grossschartner. But Stage 5, starting in Bursa, had a misery-inducing final climb from about 36 m on the flat up to 1,160 to the finish in Kartepe. It was there that the race was won.

Grossschartner, 25, pulled away at the end for a nine-second win over Italy’s Valerio Conti and Merhawi Kudus (ERI) and took the race lead over those two by 19 and 25 seconds … and that’s how it ended.

For Grossschartner, the Stage 5 win was his first ever on the World Tour, and the overall win was his first in a multi-stage race. It was also Conti’s best-ever finish in a multi-stage race on the World Tour and Kudus’s first medal in a World Tour stage race. Summaries:

UCI World Tour/Presidential Tour of Turkey
Turkey ~ 16-21 April 2019
(Full results here)

Stage 1 (156.7 km): 1. Sam Bennett (IRL), 3:32:34; 2. Fabio Jakobsen (NED), 3:32:34; 3. Caleb Ewan (AUS), 3:32:34; 4. Eduard Michael Grosu (BEL), 3:32:34; 5. Simone Consonni (ITA), 3:32:34. Also in the top 25: 24. John Murphy (USA), 3:32:34.

Stage 2 (183.3 km): 1. Bennett (IRL), 4:41:48; 2. Felix Grossschartner (AUT), 4:41:48; 3. Jhonatan Restrepo (COL), 4:41:48; 4. Gonzalo Serrano (ESP), 4:41:48; 5. Jan Polanc (SLO), 4:41:48.

Stage 3 (122.6 km): 1. Jakobsen (NED), 2:50:12; 2. Bennett (IRL), 2:50:12; 3. Mark Cavendish (GBR), 2:50:12; 4. Ewan (AUS), 2:50:12; 5. Christophe Noppe (BEL), 2:50:12. Also in the top 25: 20. John Murphy (USA), 2:50:12.

Stage 4 (194.3 km): 1. Ewan (AUS), 5:21:38; 2. Juan Jose Lobato (ESP), 5:21:38; 3. Bennett (IRL), 5:21:38; 4. Consonni (ITA), 5:21:38; 5. Jakobsen (NED), 5:21:38. Also in the top 25: 21. Kyle Murphy (USA), 5:21:38; … 18. Evan Huffman (USA), 5:23:32.

Stage 5 (164.1 km): 1. Grosschartner (AUT), 4:17:13; 2. Valerio Conti (ITA), 4:17:22; 3. Merhawi Kudus (ERI), 4:17:22; 4. Remco Evenepoel (BEL), 4:17:29; 5. Edgar Pinto (POR), 4:17:53. Also in the top 25: 7. Kyle Murphy (USA), 4:18:11.

Stage 6 (172.4 km): 1. Ewan (AUS), 4:10:41; 2. Jakobsen (NED), 4:10:41; 3. Bennett (IRL), 4:10:45; 4. Consonni (ITA), 4:10:45; 5. Jon Aberasturi (ESP), 4:10:49.

Final Standings: 1. Felix Grossschartner (AUT), 24:53.58; 2. Valerio Conti (ITA), +0:19; 3. Merhawi Kudus (ERI), +0:25; 4. Remco Evenepoel (BEL), +0:53; 5. Edgar Pinto (POR), +0:59; 6. Jan Polanc (SLO), +1:12; 7. Jhonatan Restrepo (COL), +1:26; 8. Gonzalo Serrano (ESP), +1:29; 9. Mauro Finetto (ITA), +1:31; 10. Kyle Murphy (USA), +1:42.