Davide Ballerini (XDS-Astana) claimed his first victory in more than three years on stage 7 of the Tour of Turkey, triumphing in the rain on a day that saw certain aspects of the stage neutralised.<\/p>\n
There was rain all day in Antalya, location of the start and the finish of Saturday’s 152.8km stage, which, given the relative rarity of rainfall, made the city-centre roads treacherously slippery. That much was clear as early as the opening kilometres, when the riders had to take a slight left-hand bend over a set of tram tracks, and half the peloton ended up on the floor.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n In the end, after lengthy mid-race discussions, the race organisers decided to neutralise the final 15km from a general classification perspective, meaning GC times would be taken at that point, just ahead of a descent down into Antalya. In addition, there would be no bonus seconds on offer at the intermediate sprints or the finish line.<\/p>\n Article continues below <\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n As such, Sebastian Berwick’s overall lead was relatively safe from attack, and his closest rival Ivan Sosa drifted off the back of the bunch for an easy run-in.<\/p>\n Although there was no GC battle, that was always likely to be a side-issue on a day expected to end in a bunch sprint, and that eventuality was allowed to play out in full force.<\/p>\n There were a couple of mishaps on the run-in but no crashes, and it was Ballerini who surged up the right-hand side of the road from far back to claim a victory that clearly meant a lot to him, by the way he celebrated.<\/p>\n He was followed across the line by two riders who left it even later. Marceli Boguslawski (ATT Investments) was approaching on the right but couldn’t get there in time, while two-time stage winner Tom Crabbe (Flanders-Baloise) was advancing with even greater speed but started from too far back and had to settle for third place.<\/p>\n Overall, Berwick takes a five-second lead over Sosa into Sunday’s final stage, which is also likely to culminate in a bunch sprint.<\/p>\n