Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) was less than pleased with his 2nd place in the opening stage of Tour of Turkey on Sunday.

Greipel was left without the assistance of a teammate in the decisive bunch sprint and tried to initiate the sprint early on. At the end of the day his efforts were in vain as Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) was able to outsprint him and take the honours of the day.

“I was in Marcel Kittel’s wheel but I lost it as it was rather hectic on my right and left. It’s always hard to keep a packed bunch on wide roads such as this. It forced me to launch the sprint very early. A puncture by Vicente Reynes 6 km from the finish forced me to do without a teammate but on the whole the team did a great job to take me to the front. I didn’t know what my condition was since [this is my first race since] my break after Paris-Roubaix. In this sense, it’s a good result but for a sprinter to finish second is never a satisfaction. I’m the first of the losers.”