Tour of Turkey: Mark Cavendish takes fourth sprint victory in final stage
Cavendish squeezes past Jasper Philipsen for 150th pro win, José Manuel Díaz secures GC victory.
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Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) made it four wins in eight stages at the Tour of Turkey on Sunday.
The Manx sprinter kicked past Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) and Kristoffer Halvorsen (Uno-X) to end his comeback week in style. After winning stages 2, 3, and 4, the 35-year-old added the final stage into Kusadasi for good measure, shouting “Thanks guys, that’s four,” in the seconds after he crossed the line for his 150th pro career win.
Uno-X had controlled the lead out for Halvorsen before Philipsen came up late with Cavendish stalking his wheel. When Halvorsen opened up the final kick at 50 meters to go, Philipsen made his move close to the barriers only to see Cavendish squeeze between him and the fences to steal it with a bike-throw.
“I’m very happy,” Cavendish said after the race. “It’s a lot more than I could have hoped for.”
“I’m happy to get my fourth stage win here, it feels really great,” he added later. “We had an amazing week, we really enjoyed ourselves, and taking my 150th pro victory as part of this incredible team is just the cherry on the cake.”
Overnight race leader José Manuel Díaz (Delko) finished safely in the bunch to secure the GC win, with Jay Vine (Alecin-Fenix) second on the final podium. Eduardo Sepulveda (Androni) finished third overall.
Fabio Jakobsen rolled home in the bunch to complete his first race since his horrific crash at the Tour of Poland last summer.
Most pro victories:
286 – Eddy Merckx
166 – Mario Cipollini
164 – Roger De Vlaeminck, Rik Van Looy
156 – Andre Greipel, Sean Kelly
153 – Alessandro Petacchi
151 – Francesco Moser
150 – Mark Cavendish— CafeRoubaix (@CafeRoubaix) April 18, 2021