A glitch in the team effort to set up Michael Kolar ahead of the final sprint of stage 2 in Tour of Turkey proved costly, as Tinkoff-Saxo’s sprinter ace approached the finishing straight in a position too far behind to challenge stage winner Mark Cavendish. However, with an explosive effort in the last hundred meters, Kolar managed to make up lost ground finishing 7th.
 
It was all for the sprinters in today’s stage 2 of Tour of Turkey, where Mark Cavendish proved the fastest for the second day in a row. Tinkoff-Saxo went into the final two kilometers at the front of the speeding bunch, but, according to team DS Nicki Sørensen, made an error by getting boxed in with 1.4km to go.
 
“The guys were motivated again today and I saw commitment during the stage as well as in the run-in towards the line in Antalya. However, they made an error in the finale, as they got squeezed in and Michael Kolar then had to start the sprint from around 20th position. It was a costly mistake, especially since Michael was strong today. He came fast from behind with 200m to go and overtook a lot of guys”, says Nicki Sørensen and adds about the stage:
 
“Michael’s late burst obviously shows that he has explosiveness right now. Combined with the commitment of the squad, I hope that we’ll be able to improve upon our performances the last two days and achieve a higher placement on the sprinter’s stages to come. I believe it’s feasible considering that Daniele Bennati is performing well as road captain and Pavel Brutt is showing that he’s capable of maintaining a very high speed on the flat at the moment”.

However, there’s zero chance that tomorrow’s treat for the climbers will end up in a bunch sprint. Stage 3 presents the favorites and GC-suitors with a mountainous challenge finishing on top of the 1st category climb to Elmali in 1800m altitude. Nicki Sørensen notes that Tinkoff-Saxo’s young Australian Jay McCarthy will be given the reins on the stage.
 
“Tomorrow is a totally different stage with a finish 1800m above sea level. The team will support Jay McCarthy but we have several other guys, who will get to test themselves. We’ll see how Jay is shape-wise but as of now, he is our main guy for the GC. Then Kolar, Bennati, Trusov and Juraj Sagan will save themselves for the later flat stages”, finishes Nicki Sørensen.

Mark Cavendish leads the race, while Michael Kolar sits 4th.