Tour of Turkey: Sebastian Berwick seals overall title as Tom Crabbe triples up with uphill sprint on final stage

The sting in the tail was the punishing uphill drag inside the final kilometre, which left the sprinters’ lungs bursting, but Crabbe emerged with a perfectly-timed effort to raise his arms for a third time in this race.

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Jelle Vermoote (Tarteletto-Isorex) crossed the line in second place, with Stanislaw Aniolkowski (Cofidis) bagging the final spot on the podium.

After a late catch of the final three-man breakaway, the final stage came down to a full bunch sprint up that short sharp climb, and numerous riders looked to have hit out for glory before Crabbe stole through late on.

Marc Brustenga (Kern Pharma) stormed into the lead as the crown of the hill appeared inside the final 100 metres, but Crabbe soared up on the left and overtook him just as the road was turning flat again.

Crucially, Crabbe still had power in the legs to take onto the flat, while seemingly everyone else was done and had nothing left to give once the hill had been crested. That allowed Crabbe to ease clear and raise his arms well in advance of the line.

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There were no issues for the race leader Sebastian Berwick, the Australian finishing safely in the bunch and avoiding any bonus second competition earlier on to seal the top spot on the general classification.

Berwick was the runner-up on the race’s two key mountain stages but his consistency was rewarded with a first stage race victory of the 26-year-old’s career.

His margin of victory was five seconds over Ivan Sosa (Kern Pharma), with Kamiel Bonneu (Solution Tech Nippo Rali) occupying the bottom step of the final podium, 59 seconds down.