Team Novo Nordisk’s Javier Megias defended his 11th place in the overall standings at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey despite a difficult uphill finish. Stage 5 was a 160-kilometer race that saw a trio of riders escape immediately following the start in Mugla. They built a sizeable gap of more than seven minutes but were caught as the race hit the small climbs in the early part of the day.

A larger nine-man group soon got free, but again they were reeled in with 35 km remaining. Etixx-QuickStep set the pace heading to the finish with hopes of a bunch sprint in Pamukkale. Yet the long, slightly uphill approach, late race attacks and a crash lead to a chaotic finish with Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) sprinting to the win from a reduced bunch.

“Today was actually the hardest day of the race so far, which surprised a lot of us,” Megias said to the Novo Nordisk website. “The pace was so high throughout the day and we came off that final descent at a very high speed to the finish. I’ve had better days on the bike, so I’m happy I didn’t lose much time, and we will see how everything plays out tomorrow on the climbs.”

Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) took to the win ahead of Carlos (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo).

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, continues racing at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey on Friday with Stage 5. The 184-km mountain stage begins in Denizli and features two intermediate sprints before riders hit the first categorized climb, a Category 3 situated 21.6 km from the finish. The stage ends with a summit finish on Efes Meryemana Evi near Selcuk, which is where Megias earned a top 10 finish at the race last year.