Presidential Tour of Turkey: Andrea Di Corrado escapes to win stage five

Andrea Di Corrado (Colnago-CSF Inox) took his first ever professional victory in the fifth stage of the Tour of Turkey, between Marmaris and Turgutreis on the tip of the Bodrum Peninsular, after attacking the rest of a six-man breakaway group in the final ten kilometres of the 179km stage.

The 23-year-old from Lombardy put in a powerful jump, just after an earlier attack had been pulled back and managed to build up an unassailable lead in the rolling final kilometres.

Jonas Aaen Jørgensen (Saxo Bank) won the sprint for second place, just ahead of Jérôme Cousin (Europcar), some 40 seconds behind the Italian, with the rest of the breakaway following close behind.

“I’m very happy because it’s my first pro victory,” Di Corrado smiled after the podium presentation. “I thought a lot about my grandfather, who died in February. Thinking of him helped me a lot during the break.

“I dedicate this victory to my family, to the Colnago team who helped me turn pro and to everyone who loves me.”

Jorgensen looked strong but revealed after the stage that he was fading. “I'm happy I managed to be one of the guys fighting for the finish. I wasn't the strongest on the climb. I was running out of energy,” he said. “Unfortunately, one rider went away. I had to gamble on the others to bring me back on, otherwise I was going to race for second place…and that's what happened.

For much of the stage the break threatened the race lead of Ivailo Gabrovski (Konya Torku Seker Spor). He said afterwards that he didn’t panic, and appears increasingly confident that he can pull off a very unexpected win.

“It was a long but also very hot stage. It went according to plans except for the gap with the break, which reached 15 minutes after 50 kms,” he said. “But the peloton reacted and I was never worried. My team worked well, other teams worked well too.

"The attack by AG2R riders in the last hill did not worry me either. I’m getting closer to final victory. There is one day less to defend the jersey.”

Six man move opens huge gap:

Earlier, Di Corrado, Jørgensen and Cousin escaped, along with Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana), Sébastien Duret (Bretagne-Schuller), and Alfredo Balloni (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia), early in the stage. The move began after fifteen kilometres and a gap rapidly opened up.

Race leader Ivaïlo Grabovski’s small Continental Konya-Torku Seker Spor team struggled to keep things under control against the combined might of six riders from the divisions above. They also had to contend with some very heavy coastal roads early on, which, while offering stunning views of the Aegean Sea and appealing to the TV viewers, made things tougher for the leader’s team.

Both the Turkisy Beauty sprint (km 28.8) and the second category Abkük climb (km 53.8) came in the first half of the stage and were taken by Balloni and Di Corrado respectively.

The leaders established a maximum advantage of fourteen minutes 50 seconds 85 kilometres into the stage. However Duret (left) became the virtual race leader far earlier than that, having started the stage 24th overall, 5 minutes 17 seconds behind Gabrovski.

Luckily for the latter, Caja Rural, Utensilnord Named, and Accent.jobs-Willems Verandas were all interested in collaborating. Caja Rural had Danail Andonov Petrov in third overall and therefore had reason to work, while the others may have believed a stage victory was possible.

With 65km to go, the gap was still twelve minutes 46 seconds and seemed very unlikely to close down completely before the line. However the hard-chasing behind caused it to dwindle to under five minutes with 25 kilometres remaining.

That gave the bunch an outside chance of catching the leaders, while also guaranteeing that Duret would not take over the lead. Frustrated, he went for Bodrum intermediate sprint (km 157.8) and picked that up.

The pursuit continued, but gradually fizzled out when the mathematics showed that the break would hold on to fight for the win.

Jørgensen launched the first attack, with fifteen km to go, then Balloni escaped with Cousin; as the other four pulled them back inside the final ten kilometres though, De Corrado launched his own move and the others were powerless to stop him.

The peloton crossed the line less than two minutes behind De Corrado, with the sprint for seventh won by Matteo Pelucchi (Europcar). All of the riders at the top of the overall classification finished safely behind Pelucchi, and Grabovski held on to the race lead for another day.

He had come under attack from several riders on the run in to the finish, with the Ag2r La Mondiale team being the most aggressive, but was able to cover the moves.

His challengers are likely to try again on tomorrow’s lumpy 179 kilometre race from Bodrum to Kusadasi.