Kaden Groves sprints to victory, Nacer Bouhanni crashes, sent to hospital at Tour of Turkey stage 2
Nairo Quintana crashed twice in a windy stage that saw sprinters jostling for the win.
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Kaden Groves (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) won stage 2 of the 2022 Tour of Turkey .
The young Australian sprinter bested specialists Jasper Philippsen (Alpecin-Fenix), Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), Cees Bol (DSM), and Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) at the end of a 158km stage.
With the win, Groves takes over the lead of the general classification from Ewan who had won the sprint on stage 1.
“It’s pretty amazing! I’m very happy to back up with another win already this season and I can’t thank my team enough today, they did such a great job,” Groves said.
An early break, with Amerian Noah Granigan (Wildlife Generation), got as much as two minutes up the road before Lotto Soudal turned up the pace to bring them back, and try to deliver Ewan to another win.
The sustained pace increase temporarily shed 2020 Zwift academy winner Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix), and also Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), who went down in a minor tumble.
Several attempts at solo breaks were launched in the final 50km, but nothing stuck. A crash just outside of the three-kilometer mark brought down Quintana for a second time on the stage — and he ultimately lost 1:44 — knocking him out of GC contention.
Winds played a factor in the closing meters of the race, and teams jostled for position to lead out the respective sprinters, but it was Groves who ultimately came out on top.
“We weren’t really sure of the direction of the wind, it was changing quite a bit today. But we thought ‘why not try and take another team or two with us?’” Groves said. “In the end, the wind wasn’t in the right direction, even if it was certainly strong enough. Everyone tried but nothing really happened.”
Nacer Bouhanni taken to hospital
Arkéa-Samsic star sprinter Nacer Bouhanni crashed early on the stage and was taken to a local hospital, reported French news outlet L’Équipe .
His teammate Kévin Ledanois also went down in the crash, but was able to remount his bike and keep racing.
The team has not yet provided more detail about Bouhanni’s condition.
https://twitter.com/Arkea_Samsic/status/1513469972676329473
2022 Tour of Turkey stage 2 results
- Kaden Groves (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), 04:02:11
- Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix), at st
- Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), at st
- Cees Bol (Team DSM), at st
- Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), at st
- Jasper De Buyst (Lotto Soudal), at st
- Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe), at st
- Miguel Angel Fernandez (Global 6 Cycling), at st
- Rick Zabel (Israel-Premier Tech), at st
- Giovanni Lonardi (EOLO-Kometa Cycling Team), at st
2022 Tour of Turkey general classification
- Kaden Groves (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), 08:40:12
- Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix), at :02
- Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), at :04
- Cees Bol (Team DSM), at :14
- Danny van Poppel (Bora-hansgrohe), at s.t.
- Rick Zabel (Israel-Premier Tech), at s.t.
- Miguel Angel Fernandez (Global 6 Cycling), at s.t.
- Scott McGill (Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling), at s.t.
- Filippo Tagliani (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli), at s.t.
- Patrick Bevin (Israel-Premier Tech), at s.t.