Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEdge) emerged as the strongest of only around 15 riders who managed to get ahead of a massive pile-up that held back most of the peloton inside the final kilometer of the second stage of the Tour of Turkey. He beat Marco Coledan (Bardiani) and a fast finishing Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) while the German took over the leader's jersey from stage 1 winner Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) who was one of the riders to go down.

All was set for a big bunch sprint with a impressive line-up of sprinters as the peloton roared towards the finish line in Antalya at the end of an almost completely flat 2nd stage of the Tour of Turkey. After having missed out on the opening day, the mighty Blanco train were at the head of the peloton inside the final kilometer of the race with Graeme Brown setting a hard tempo just ahead of Mark Renshaw and the team's preferred sprinter Theo Bos.

In a moment of inattention, Renshaw hit Brown's wheel and was brought to the ground while the same was the case for Bos who was unable to escape the tumble of his lead-out man. Just behind overall leader Marcel Kittel, Andre Greipel and Danilo Napolitano (Accent.jobs) had been involved in a hard fight to get into the Dutchman's wheel and while the Lotto captain managed to avoid the carnage, both of his rivals also hit the ground.

On the narrow road most of the peloton was held up, and only around 15 riders managed to continue ahead of the crash. Marco Coledan who had been working to set up Sacha Modolo for the sprint was now alone in the lead while Aidis Kruopis chased valiantly behind. Some way further back Greipel had got back up to speed after his near-tumble and was approaching the first riders with a rapid pace.

Kruopis managed to get onto the wheel of Coledan and unsurprisingly the fast Lithuanian had no problems to pass his rival to take his first victory of the season. Greipel fought hard to catch Coledan but narrowly missed the 2nd place by just a few centimetres. Due to bonus seconds the 3rd place was enough to elevate him into the overall lead due to a lower combined total of his stage placings than Kittel and Kruopis who are both equal on time with the big German.

Amazingly, most riders seemed to escape the carnage unscathed and Kittel was seen crossing the finish line surrounded by his teammates. At a first glance only Renshaw seemed to be badly hurt and the Australian was transported away from the scene with a neck brace. We still do not have any further information on the condition of the Blanco rider.

Greipel will take his leader's jersey into tomorrow's queen stage to the top of the category 1 Elmali climb. This stage will be crucial in determining the final winner of the race and the climbers lick their lips in anticipation of steep slopes on the ascent that are known as Turkey's Alpe d'Huez.

A calm start to race

The 150km stage started in the tourist center Alanya and headed along the Turkish coast to the nearby city of Antalya as the race started it travel up towards the finish in Istanbul on Sunday. The completely flat roads were perfectly suited to a bunch sprint, and the highly competitive line-up of sprinters was expected to put their fast finishing speed on show.

With most riders knowing that a breakaway would have limited chances to success, there was no big fight to enter today's early move. After 5km Junya Sano (Vini Fantini), Ahmet Örken (Torku Sekerspor), Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural), Duber Quintero (Colombia), Piotr Gawronski (CCC) and Clement Koretzky (Bretagne) managed to get clear and they were allowed to build up a gap of more than 6 minutes.

In the peloton Argos-Shimano started to chase at a moderate pace and for most of the day Cheng Ji and Thomas Damuseau were seen at the head of the peloton as they had been in the early part of yesterday's opening stage. The gap started to come down and with 91km to go the breakaway was only 4.55 ahead.

Lotto joins the chase

Moments later Lotto-Belisol decided to join the pace-setting, and Olivier Kaisen and Gert Dockx both had lengthy stints at the front of the peloton. It was evident that Greipel and Kittel both expected another showdown between the two mighty German sprinters.

The advantage started to fall quickly and even though the break managed to stabilize it just below the two minute mark for a number of kilometres, their adventure was always doomed. Sensing the inevitable, Koretzky attacked his companions with 20km to go but he was brought back moments later.

Behind Anthon Delaplace (Sojasun) and Koen Barbe (Crelan) attacked on a small hill and the duo managed to join the front duo. Just as they gained contact, Sano took off and after a small chase Delaplace and Quintero caught up with the lone Japanese rider. Meanwhile, the other escapees were caught by a peloton in which the battle for position was now furious.

All back together

Blanco and Accent.jobs decided to join the pace-making in an attempt to set up their sprinters Bos and Napolitano and with 10km to go it was all back together. The trains now started to line up as they all fought to enter the final kilometres in the best possible position.

Europcar hit the front with the intention of winning the stage with Bryan Coquard but they were replaced by the Konya team who managed to chase down a small dig by Filippo Pozzato (Lampre). Inside the final 5km it was, however, the mighty Blanco train who took over at the front and after a small battle with the Omega Pharma-Quick Step lead-out riders they passed the flamme rouge with complete control of the bunch.

Robert Wagner finished his work and handed over the pace-setting duties to Brown and everything seemed to be perfectly on track for a perfect lead-out for Bos. That was, however, not to be the case as Renshaw hit his compatriot's rear wheel and started the pile-up that dramatically influenced the outcome of the stage.

Top 10:

1. Aidis Kruopis

2. Marco Coledan

3. Andre Greipel

4. Serguei Gretchyn

5. Alexander Porsev

6. Leigh Howard

7. Vicente Reynes

8. Maximiliano Richeze

9. Mateusz Nowak

10. Filippo Fortin

General classification:

1. Andre Greipel

2. Marcel Kittel

3. Aidis Kruopis

4. Marco Coledan +0.04

5. Yury Metlushenko +0.06

6. Maximiliano Richeze +0.10

7. Leigh Howard

8. Roger Kluge

9. Andrew Fenn

10. Francesco Lasca