Tour of Turkey: Tom Crabbe avoids nasty crash on stage 2 to take back-to-back sprint victories

Stage 1 winner and race leader Tom Crabbe (Flanders-Baloise) doubled up to win stage 2 of the Tour of Turkey, navigating a hectic sprint in Marmaris to grab the victory.

Crabbe briefly found himself dropped on a late climb on the second stage, but made it to the bunch to contest for the stage win.

With 10 bonus seconds on the line, Crabbe extended his lead to top the GC for another day after his opening stage win.

“I had so many thoughts during the final five kilometres, because I got dropped right before the top on the final climb, and I just tried and tried. The team helped me so much, they were incredible,” he said at the finish.

“At three kilometres to go I was able to get back to the peloton, then I didn’t wait, I went immediately to the front. I was just so exhausted, I didn’t realise how many kilometres it was, and then I suddenly saw the finish line. I got myself into a top five position and just went full gas and managed to beat Sente right at the finish, same this as yesterday I think. It’s crazy, it was a hard day for me.”

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

The second stage in Turkey featured one category 3 climb in the middle of the day and then an uncategorised kicker in the final 15km.

A nine-rider group got away early in the stage but was slowly whittled down until the final three escapees were swept up with 13.5km to go. The attacks kicked off on the late climb, but no one could get away definitively. Some sprinters were dropped, but most were able to come back on the flat to contest the bunch finish.

It was a tense and aggressive sprint with several instances of shoulder barging, resulting in one large crash and many riders only narrowly avoiding other incidents.

Results

Results powered by FirstCycling