New victory for Tobias Lund Andresen in the Tour of Turkey, Frank van den Broek remains leader

Tobias Lund Andresen has won the seventh stage of the Tour of Turkey. The rider from DSM-firmenich PostNL beat Timothy Dupont and Manuel Peñalver in the bunch sprint and took his third victory of the week. His teammate Frank van den Broek got through the day well and remains the leader.

On Saturday it was again the turn of the fast men in the Tour of Turkey. A day earlier, Frank van den Broek surprised by winning the queen stage. The Dutchman also took over the lead in the general classification. The seventh stage left in Cesme and arrived in Izmir after 125.4 kilometers.

It took a while before we got an early flight on Saturday. After about 30 kilometers a duo drove away. James Whelan (Q36.5) and Natnael Berhane (Beykoz Belediyesi Spor Türkiye) joined forces. The two worked well together and rode away for almost four minutes. A nice lead, but with two of us against a chasing peloton it was impossible.

Strange final kilometers
The duo continued to fight it out for a while, but they were ultimately only caught five kilometers from the finish. X briefly made the crossing to Whelan, the last remaining escapee, but that attempt led to nothing. The chase was initially led by the men of DSM company PostNL, the team of leader Van den Broek and sprinters Fabio Jakobsen and Tobias Lund Andresen. Smaller teams such as Corratec-Vini Fantini and Spor Toto had also taken the lead.

In the last kilometers the initiative came from several sides. Teams such as Bingoal WB, Astana Qazaqstan, Polti Kometa and BORA-hansgrohe also participated, resulting in a chaotic final phase. Just under two kilometers from the finish there was also a real U-turn in the course, which led to a small crash. This disrupted the sprint even more.

Andresen clearly the fastest
Mark Cavendish was nevertheless perfectly positioned by his team, but the Briton did not get around to sprinting. Andresen did, the young Dane was clearly the fastest of the pack. He took his third victory of the week, ahead of Timothy Dupont and Manuel Peñalver. For DSM-firm PostNL it is already the fifth victory of the week in Turkey. Frank van den Broek finished in the peloton and remains leader in the general classification.