Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) continued his domination of the Tour of Turkey sprints when he added the win in today's second stage to the one he took in yesterday's opening stage. After a few mistakes on the first day, his team delivered him perfectly and the sprinter himself proved to be superior when he beat Francesco Chicchi (Neri Sottoli) and Niccolo Bonifazio (Lampre-Merida) by more than a bike length despite riding into a fierce headwind.

 

Mark Cavendish may have missed most of the spring season due to illness but his health issues clearly haven't set him too far back. After winning yesterday's opening stage of the Tour of Turkey, he proved that he is in a class of his own in the Turkish race despite being up against a splendid field of sprinters.

 

Yesterday his Omega Pharma-Quick Step made a few small mistakes that forced the Manxman to handle the final few hundred metres on his own but today it was a splendid team effort that laid the foundations for their win. Almost right from the beginning of the stage when Kevin De Weert started to chase the early break, the team led the peloton all the way until Cavendish crossed the line as the first rider.

 

In the end, Iljo Keisse, Gert Steegmans and Alessandro Petacchi both took big turns on the front until the Belkin team tried to pass them. At that point, Mark Renshaw took over and as he upped the pace a further notch, Barry Markus and Graeme Brown could only position their sprinter Theo Bos on Cavendish's wheel instead of launching him on the front.

 

With Renshaw running out of steam, Cavendish had to launch his sprint from afar and that could have been a difficult task as the finishing straight was slightly uphill and into a fierce headwind. However, the outcome was never in doubt as the Brit was simply in a class of his own.

 

Francesco Chicchi seemed to be moving up but as soon as he hit the win, his progress stalled and that was the pattern for all sprinters. Whenever they hit the strong wind, they started to fade and lose ground to the invincible Cavendish. The Brit crossed the line more than a bike length ahead of Chicchi and young Niccolo Bonifazio who improved on yesterday's fourth.

 

With the win, Cavendish defended his leader's jersey but with no bonus seconds he is equal on time with most of the peloton. That is all set to change in tomorrow's queen stage where the riders will finish on the brutal Elmali climb that is known as the Turkish Alpe d'Huez. Before getting to the final ascent, the riders will go up another two big climbs on what should be the hardest stage of the race.

 

One for the sprinters

After an opening day for the sprinters, the disappointed ones of the fast finishers were expected to get an immediate chance to take their revenge as the Tour of Turkey continued with another flat stage. The 174.2km stage headed mostly along coastal roads from yesterday's finish in Alanya to the city of Kemer and as the roads were flat all day, it was expected to be an affair for the sprinters.

 

The riders are usually greeted by excellent weather conditions in Turkey but today things were different. The 153 riders in the race left the start in Alanya under torrential rain and only had the slight consolation that things were expected to improve as the day went on.

 

The break takes off

With the stage expected to suit the sprinters, there was no big battle to be part of the early breakaway and it was no surprise to see 5 riders go up the road early on. Ahmet Orken (Torku Sekerspor) made sure that the locals had a rider in the move and he was joined by Martijn Verschoor (Team Novo Nordisk), Nicola Boem (Bardiani), Pawel Charucki (CCC) and Mattia Pozzo (Neri Sottoli).

 

The quintet was quickly allowed to build up a nice gap that at one point reached 5.15. The sprinters, however, had no intention of letting this opportunity slip away. Their teams kept the gap stable at around 4 minutes for some time and as Kevin De Weert and Rick Flens set the pace for OPQS and Belkin, it was even down to 1.40 with just 76km to go.

 

A battle for points

At this point, the escapees had already contested the Turkish Beauty sprint where Pozzo had beaten Verschoor and Orken to draw equal on points with classification leader Frederique Robert (Wanty). In the first intermediate sprint, he was again the fastest as he beat Orken and Verschoor in the dash to the line.

 

Behind, the peloton had again slowed down, with Flens and De Weert allowing the gap to reach 2.25. Meanwhile, Boem suffered a puncture but his fellow escapees decided to wait for him.

 

Lotto Belisol attack in the crosswinds

With 59km to go, Lotto Belisol decided to try the same move that they had done yesterday when Greipel launched an attack in the crosswinds. With teammates Greg Henderson, Vegard Breen, Gert Dockx, Jonas Vangenechten, Adam Hansen and Pim Ligthart, he swapped turns on the front at they even got assistance from OPQS, with Petr Vakoc, Petacchi, Renshaw and Steegmans all taking the turns.

 

The two teams quickly realized that it was all in vain as the peloton never split and so they stopped their effort. At this point, however, the gap was down to 30 seconds and as the escapees were now in sight, they seemed to have lost all morale.

 

The break splits up

Orken tried to reinvigorate the break and this allowed the gap to go back up to 1.50 while De Weert and Flens again assumed their position on the front. This was too much for Charucki who fell off the pace and he was quickly swallowed up by the peloton.

 

With 39km to go, the escapees contested the second intermediate sprint where Pozzo again beat Verschoor and Boem.

 

No cooperation in the break

While his fellow escapees recovered from the sprint, Orken took off but he was quickly brought back. This spelled the end for the cooperation though, with Boem and Verschoor forcing Orken to close a small gap to Pozzo.

 

Cannondale now joined the chase as Juraj Sagan hit the front and started to swap turns with De Weert and Flens. The gap was now down to 30 seconds and so Orken try to put some life back into the break.

 

The break is caught

As he didn't get much help, Orken made another small attack. Pozzo and Verschoor responded immediately while Boem was a bit more hesitant but it finally got back together. However, it was clearly over for the break and they were now only waiting for the capture while the peloton had to slow down to avoid catching them too early.

 

With 16km to go, it was finally over for the escape as Sagan, De Weert and Flens closed the final small gap. Meanwhile, the sprint trains started to organize themselves near the front as Sagan and Flens had now disappeared, leaving all the work to De Weert.

 

Cavendish scores points

Cavendish showed his interest in the points jersey when he asked teammate Gianni Meersman to contest the final intermediate sprint and the Belgian easily beat Pozzo. Cavendish rolled across in third to score an additional point himself.

 

De Weert assumed his position on the front until his day finally ended 10km from the line. Vakoc took over for OPQS but it was now a drag race between the different sprint trains.

 

A drag race

Wanty, Neri Sottoli and Cannondale were all very prominent on the front, riding alongside the OPQS riders but no one wanted to launch the sprint too early due to headwind. With 6km to go, Katusha, Topsport Vlaanderen and Torku Sekerspor also had trains lined up on the front.

 

With 4km to go, Neri Sottoli upped the pace with two riders but as they had lost Chicchi, Meersman took over for OPQS and Matthias Krizek for Cannondale. Lotto moved up with Ligthart, Breen and Greipel but as they had lost the rest of their train, they stopped their effort.

 

Perfect OPQS lead-out

Keisse now took over for OPQS and from there the Belgian team was in control all the way to the line. Steegmans was the next in line before Petacchi took a massive turn on the front.

 

As Belkin tried to pass the OPQS riders, Renshaw upped the pace even further and so the Dutchmen positioned Bos on Cavendish' wheel. When the Brit launched his sprint, however, the Dutchman was unable to keep up with him as the OPQS sprinter took a very convincing second win in the race.