Saturday’s penultimate stage at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey saw Javier Megias hold onto his 11th place position for the fourth consecutive day.

Stage 7 was a 166-kilometer race beginning in Selcuk and featuring two categorized climbs. A three-man break escaped early and quickly built a gap of more than four minutes before getting caught on the final climb located 28.8 km from the finish. The Category 1 climb splintered the peloton into several groups. Megias made the front group but as the race descended into Izmir, dozens of riders were able to reconnect. By the time the race hit the flat finish in Izmir, approximately 70 riders were in the front group. Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick Step) earned his third stage win of the race in the bunch sprint.

“We did our best to work for Javi today,” David Lozano said. “We would have liked to get someone into the break but it unfortunately didn’t happen. We have one more chance here in Turkey.”

Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick Step) took the win ahead of Andrea Piechele (Bardiani-CSF Pro Team) and Kristian Sbaragli (Team MTN-Qhubeka). Megias remains 11th overall, 2:22 behind race leader Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida).

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team, finishes racing at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey on Sunday with Stage 8. The final stage is a 124-km race around Istanbul that features nine laps on a circuit with a 50-meter kicker and an uphill finish.