Published April 12, 2010 03:18PM
Greipel wins Turkey stage, Van Garderen still second
HTC Columbia's Andre Greipel takes a stage 2 sprint win and retains his overall lead at the Tour of Turkey, while young American Tejay Van Garderen finished safely in the pack to retain second place.
André Greipel is undefeated so far at the 2010 Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey
The German sprinter, who won Sunday’s opening time trial stage, outsprinted Angelo Furlan and Claudio Cucinotta on Monday to win the 178-kilometer stage from Kusadasi to Turgutreis.
His American teammate Tejay Van Garderen finished in the same time in 57th place to retain his second place on the GC.
“It was a really tough day. A lot of climbing, particularly in the last 20 kilometers, but André stuck in there and we finally got the win,” said HTC-Columbia’s sports director Jan Schaffrath. “The whole team really did a great job. Gert Dockx and Aleksejs Saramotins were particularly strong, bringing back the attackers time after time.”
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Schaffrath said after looking at the stage course profile before the stage, “It looked like a heart rate monitor, there were so many little climbs. Fortunately none of them were too big. The longest was about three kilometers. The last sprint was a little bit dangerous, though, and came after another little climb in the final kilometers, but André held on and then did a great sprint.”
“Tomorrow’s another difficult stage, it’s even hillier. But we’ve got several options, including Tejay Van Garderen. and everybody got through today’s stage fine. We’re optimistic.”