Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) sprinted to victory on stage 3 of the Tour of Turkey, from a reduced peloton after two late climbs had disrupted the finish for the pure sprinters.
The Dutchman celebrated his first win of the season and 21st of his career in Marmaris, though his celebrations soon ended when UCI race judges relegated him from first place after moving across the road and squeezing Giovanni Lonardi (Polti-Kometa) against the barriers during a chaotic, curving run to the finish.
Race organisers then announced that Lonardi had been awarded the stage win with Van Poppel relegated to 81st and last in the reduced peloton.
The relegation means that Lonardi, already the points classification leader, is also the new overall race leader. He beats Enrico Zanoncello (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) to the stage win, with the Bardiani rider also in second overall at four seconds down. Stage 2 winner Max Kanter (Astana Qazaqstan) rounds out the podium, while fellow German Henri Uhlig (Alpecin-Deceuninck) lies third overall, level on time with Zanoncello.
The 147km stage from Fethiye to Marmaris was another stage suited to the fastmen, though with a third-category climb just over 30km from the line and another second-category test 13km out, it would be one for the versatile sprinters. Indeed, Sam Welsford (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) failed to survive the attacks and high pace on the climb, while Fabio Jakobsen (DSM Firmenich-PostNL) finished 11th in the sprint.
It took some time for the breakaway to form on the 147.7km stage, with Filippo Conca (Alpecin-Deceuninck) leading the move after just over 50km of racing. The Italian got away with Willie Smit (China Glory), Antoine Berlin (Bike Aid), and Konrad Czabok (Mazowsze Serce Polski) to form the break of the day, taking a two-minute lead.
Alpecin-Deceuninck and Bora-Hansgrohe both put in the work in the peloton to keep the move within grasp, dragging the break to within a minute as they hit the first of the day’s two categorised climbs.
On that hill, Conca proved the strongest man from the lead quartet, leaving his companions behind to go solo over the top and on the way to the second climb. Berlin gave chase along with Samuele Zoccarato (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), with the pair among a flurry of attackers jumping from the peloton between the climbs.
Berlin and Zoccarato would be joined by Abay, Teugels, and Cavanagh before the final climb, with the quintet teaming up with Conca on the way up. The enlarged lead group wouldn’t last long out front, however, as more attacks came from behind on the way up, including from Mark Donovan (Q36.5) and Paul Double (Polti-Kometa).
Bora-Hansgrohe kept control of the situation, though, chasing down more attacks as the race hit the flat final 10km. The German team were joined by Polti-Kometa and Astana Qazaqastan in leading the peloton towards the final sprint, though it was Alpecin-Deceuninck who took charge inside the final kilometre.
The dash to the line was a messy one and the Dutch squad ended up leading out Van Poppel with their own sprinter Uhlig lost further back.
Van Poppel looked the strongest from the sprinters left to contest the win. He cross the line first, celebrating and completing the post-race interviews to boot, though he wouldn’t last long as the stage’s official winner, with race judges quickly deciding that his moves in the dash for the line were illegal.
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