April 27/11 11:13 am - Tour of Turkey: Stage 4 Updated

Posted by Editoress on 04/27/11
 

Results from today's Tour of Turkey won by Alessandro Petacchi ( Lampre - ISD). Team Spidertech's Patrick McCarty finished 23rd at 1 second back. Top Canadian was Svein Tuft (Spidertech) who finished 35th at 29 seconds back.

Race Perspective from Directeur Sportif, Steve Bauer

Expectations: On paper, Stage 4 was looking to be “THE” General Classification day of the 47th Tour of Turkey.  We expected the race to be wide open with no teams willing to control the tempo. Team SpiderTech would have to be tough as nails to stay in the game over the mountainous terrain for 207 km.  The day was wet, windy and descents would be slippery.

The Game Plan: Team SpiderTech powered by C10 would aim to get François Parisien or Will Routley in the first breakaway before the first big first Category climb.  If we could launch someone earlier, we could use their strength later in the game.  The mid section of the race would be never ending up and down, so the peloton would be selected there. Only the strong men would remain in front for sure.  Svein Tuft, Lucas Euser, Pat McCarty would need to be on their game.

How it Happened: From Routley’s first attack at kilometre zero until the final sprint at kilometre 207, the race was on. There was a constant pressure with breaks forming, pelotons chasing and reforming with new breaks.  Over the top of the first big climb at the 40-km mark, the race was clearly divided with 60 riders going forward and the rest out of contention.  Tuft, McCarty and Ryan Anderson made the front group. Parisien was in difficulty and Bruno Langlois crashed badly on a descent trying to avoid fallen riders on the slippery roads.  Langlois abandoned and his nasty knee wound needed to be stitched up at the hospital.

In the front of the race, an important break containing FDJ, Cofidis, Liquidgas, TT1 and Androni made for a tough chase by NetApp and Lampre. As these teams narrowed the 2-minute gap, the race approached the final 40 km.  On a wide open, fast descent towards the finish, Svein Tuft sprinted toward the break, leaving the chasers.  Tuft bridged to the front, blasted through the lead break and joined the solo leader, Fourchard of Cofidis.  The duo raised the gap to 1:20 at 20 km to go.  On the run in to the finish, Tuft gave it everything he had to win the stage but the FDJ riders organized and the break was caught within the last kilometre of an uphill finish.  Pettachi of Lampre wins.

“The headwind and wide-open road coming to the finish were not ideal for us, but I took my best shot to win a stage,” said Tuft "McCarty and Anderson were also great teammates riding in the front group today.  It was one hard day"

"Svein made a huge race today.  He gave it a fantastic try to win the race and possibly the overall.  It’s too bad we cannot buy a wee bit of fortune (tailwind) that could have made the difference.  If one FDJ rider could have stayed with that duo, my gut says that was the race winning move,” remarked Bauer.

Team GC to come