It was almost but not quite there for McCarthy, who showed great legs for the second day in a row in Tour of Turkey. The 22-year old, who is fourth in the GC, took off with a small group on the last hill of stage 4. However, he was swept up by the speeding bunch in the final sprint, which was won by André Greipel with Daniele Bennati finishing 9th.
 
According to Tinkoff-Saxo sports director Nicki Sørensen, McCarthy’s near miss run-in towards the finish line once again consolidates the shape of the young GC-captain.
 
“We had a short climb with 10k to go, where Jay went away with a dangerous group with several GC-competitors as they crested the top. Together with another rider, he kept the peloton at bay at a time, where the speed was really high. Unfortunately, they were caught with 500m to go, but Jay told me that it was really close and that he had a very good feeling out on the stage”, says Nicki Sørensen and adds:

“He’s optimistic for his chances and so are the entire team. He still has possibilities, especially on stage 6, which has a very interesting profile from his perspective”.

Stage 4 of Tour of Turkey took the riders 132km from Fethiye to the costal town of Marmaris, where the stage finish was made tricky by the final climb, which took out many of the teams’ sprinters. Tinkoff-Saxo’s fast man Michael Kolar had to let go of the decimating main bunch just 400m from the top and ultimately it was Lotto-Soudal’s André Greipel that proved the fastest.
 
“Kolar came really close to making it over the top but was dropped just before the summit, however we hadn’t expected him to be there either. So Bennati participated in the sprint and was 9th. All in all, the riders are satisfied and I’m satisfied with their performance. Right now, we have a team that performs well in all sorts of terrain and tomorrow we’re planning to support Kolar in the sprint once more. Also Pavel Brutt is fielding a very strong shape at the moment, so I believe that it’s just a matter of time before he hits the right breakaway. No matter what, he’s a very important piece in the Tinkoff-Saxo puzzle right now”, finishes Nicki Sørensen.
 
Jay McCarthy still sits 4th in the overall classification going into stage 5, which will send the peloton barreling down towards Pamukkale after having stayed in above 800m altitude during most of the day.