Visconti secures 2010 Tour of Turkey win, American Tejay Van Garderen winds up second overall
Italy's Giovanni Visconti won the Presidential Tour of Turkey Sunday, triumphing in an eight-stage, 1,232-kilometer race from Istanbul to the Mediterranean resort of Alanya.
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HTC-Columbia put a winning note on its dominant performance during the eight-day Turkey Tour, with André Greipel winning yet another stage Sunday and Tejay Van Garderen earning his first pro podium spot with second overall.
Greipel out-kicked Angelo Furlan (Lampre) in the 158km final stage from Antalaya to Anlaya along the Mediterranean Coast. Kenny Van Hummel (Skil-Shimano) rolled across the line third.
Greipel won five of the eight stages to bring his season-long haul to 11 races so far in 2010. Greipel was seventh overall, and also claimed the overall victory in the points jersey.
“It’s been one of those stage races where everything fell into place, the team functioned perfectly and it all worked out well: a dream result,” said HTC-Columbia sports director Jan Schaffrath. “André’s five wins showed he was strong from start to finish, not just in the sprints, but also in the short time trial that opened the race and the hillier stages in the middle.”
Giovanni Visconti (ISD) won the overall after winning ahead of Van Garderen in a key breakaway victory in stage 3. Van Garderen was second overall at 29 seconds back while David Moncoutie (Cofidis) rounded out the podium with third overall at 33 seconds back.
The Turkey podium underscores Van Garderen’s promise in stage racing. He was second behind Greipel in the opening day prologue and finished second to Visconti in stage 4 and held his podium spot through the weekend.
“I was particularly pleased for Tejay,” added Schaffrath. “He did some great riding for André in the Tour of Mallorca and Tour of the Algarve in February, and here he got his own reward. It’s very promising for the future. At the same time the team did brilliantly as a whole, although I’d like to single out Frankie Rabon. He crashed three times and got injured but never gave up, working tirelessly for the leaders.”
