Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) has been dominating the bunch sprints in the Tour of Turkey and today he did it again by taking another superior win on the race's final day. Mustafa Sayar (Konya) had an easy day on the flat stage and took the overall win ahead of Natnael Berhane (Europcar) and Yoann Bagot (Cofidis).

Prior to today Marcel Kittel has had the chance to contest two bunch sprints in this year's Tour of Turkey and on both occasions he has come out triumphant. Today he got one last opportunity and once again he did not disappoint as he took home his third win of the race.

Once again the big German was delivered perfectly by his fantastic lead-out train who took control of the peloton inside the final kilometer after a number of teams had battled hard to bring their sprinters into the perfect position. Having been set up perfectly by his teammates no one was even close to challenging the big German as Andrea Guardini (Astana) took his second runner-up position in a row while Andrew Fenn (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was third.

Mustafa Sayar (Konya) enjoyed another easy day on the flat 121km typical sprint stage in Turkey's biggest city Istanbul and with perfect team support it was no problem for him to finish safely in the bunch. This secured him a hugely surprising overall win in his big home race after he took the lead with a victory two days ago and there is no doubt that the home crowd will be celebrating this big win in appropriate manner.

The 24-year old Turk was by far the strongest in uphill finish on Friday and there is no doubt that his win is highly deserved. He finished ahead of previous leader Natnael Berhane (Europcar) and Yoann Bagot (Cofidis) and there is no doubt that his Konya team are relieved to win the race after last year's disaster where the team's Ivailo Gabrovski tested positive for EPO after having been declared the overall winner of the race.

With the Tour of Turkey now over Sayar will continue his racing in the Tour d'Azerbaijan on Wednesday while many of the race's big-name sprinters will line up at the Giro d'Italia next Saturday.

From Europe to Asia

The 121km 8th and final stage of the Tour of Turkey is a very unique event on the cycling calendar as it is the only race to take place in two different continents. Starting in the European part of Istanbul, the flat stage crossed the Bosporus bridge before it finished with 8 laps on a finishing circuit in the Asian part of Turkey's biggest city.

Very early in the stage Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha), Benjamin Verraes (Accent.jobs) and Javier Megias (Team Novo Nordisk) escaped and started to build up a gap while the peloton rolled along at a leisurely pace. Francisco Moreno (Caja Rural) tried to close the gap on his own and for a number of kilometres he was stuck in no man's land between the peloton and the break. However, he kept losing ground and with 30km to go he was back in the bunch.

Konya controls

The leading trio was allowed to build up a gap of around 4 minutes before the Konya team of overall leader Sayar and Andre Greipel's Lotto-Belisol squad started to chase. As Ignatiev seemed to be the only one really interested in keeping the break alive, the gap started to come down to and after 48km it was already back to 1.30.

With the break under control Lotto stopped their effort and for a long time Konya kept the gap stable between 1.30 and 2.00. With 55km to go, Kittel's Argos-Shimano team started to chase and they joined the Konya team at the head of the peloton.

Astana and Orica-GreenEdge start to chase

With 30km to Guardini's Astana team also decided to contribute and from that point the gap started to come down quickly. The Orica-GreenEdge team of Aidis Kruopis also decided to lend a hand, and sensing the inevitable capture Ignatiev decided to attack his companions.

The Russian time trial specialist soloed off while his former companions were caught by the bunch with 14km remaining. As more and more teams started to line up their trains, the move by Ignatiev seemed to be doomed and with 10km to go it was all back together.

Inside the final 5km of the stage it was mostly Orica-GreenEdge and the Lampre team of Maximiliano Richeze who were in control of the peloton while the Argos-Shimano team was always lurking a little further behind. With 1km to go the Ducth team had moved to the front and they made a faultless effort as they once again delivered their big German sprinter to a triumph in Turkey.

Result:
1 Marcel Kittel - Argos-Shimano

2 Andrea Guardini - Astana

3 Andrew Fenn - Omega Pharma-QuickStep

4 Aidis Kruopis - Orica-GreenEdge

5 Stefan Van Dijk - Accent Jobs-Wanty

6 Moreno Hofland - Blanco Pro Cycling Team

7 Francesco Lasca - Caja Rural

8 Maximiliano Ariel Richeze - Lampre-Merida

9 Andrea Palini - Lampre-Merida

10 Andre Greipel - Lotto Belisol

Final general classification:

1 Mustafa Sayar - Torku Sekerspor

2 Natnael Berhane - Team Europcar 0.41

3 Yoann Bagot - Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0.44

4 Maxime Mederel - Sojasun 0.57

5 Nicolas Edet - Cofidis, Solutions Credits 1.00

6 Cameron Meyer - Orica-GreenEdge 1.02

7 Darwin Atapuma Hurtado - Colombia 1.08

8 Florian Guillou - Bretagne-Seche Environnement 1.09

9 Danail Andonov Petrov - Caja Rural 1.13

10 Rory Sutherland - Team Saxo-Tinkoff