The crosswind can be a cruel mistress
On a windy day at Tour of Turkey, Lotto – Soudal gutters the peloton and rides away with six of eight men in the final selection.
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If there’s one thing that any self-respecting Belgian cyclist loves, it’s a crosswind, and Lotto – Soudal (yes, a Belgian team) took advantage of a very windy day in Tour of Turkey stage 3 to shatter the peloton. To be fair, there’s only one other WorldTour team in this UCI 2.HC stage race. But still, when the final selection looks more like a team time trial than a road race, you know it was pretty ugly when the echelons formed.
Naturally, Lotto’s sprinter, André Greipel won the day. It’s almost a surprise that Roth’s Alberto Cecchin slipped into second place ahead of Greipel’s lead-out man, Kris Boeckmans. The final eight-man selection included six Lotto – Soudal riders in total: Greipel and Boeckmans, plus Greg Henderson, Stig Broeckx, Gert Dockx, and Frederik Frison. Naturally, all but Greipel and Henderson are Belgian.