Dutchman Wout Poels has captured stage 4 of the Tour of Turkiye from Marmaris to Akyaka, transferring into the general lead as he claimed his first ever win for XDS Astana on the primary and hardest summit end of the race.
In a triumphant day for the Chinese language-Kazakh workforce, Poels‘ teammate Harold Martín López positioned second, 19 seconds again, with Guillermo Juan Martinez (Picnic-PostNL) in third.
On a crash-marred, rainsoaked stage and after a hilly opening leg the place the bunch deemed a 15-man transfer too highly effective and quite a few to let go, the battle for victory boiled right down to the ultimate cat.1 9.1 kilometre Kiran ascent.
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At its foot, 60 riders chased a breakaway comprising Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Victor Vaneeckhoute (Lotto Growth Group), Gorka Sorarrain (Caja Rural-SegurosRGA), Mustafa Tekin (Spor Toto Biking Group) and Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) with a quickly dropping benefit of about 90 seconds.
One after the other the break was caught and after former Tour de France stage winner Poels attacked within the final 5 kilometres, a brand new, decisive transfer emerged containing the Dutchman and his XDS Astana teammate Harold Martín López, Ion Agirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), and Picnic-PostNL duo Frank van den Broek – the 2024 total winner – and Martinez.
All 4 have been at 14 seconds on GC so had severe choices on the general, however Poels was, once more, the primary to actually open up the throttle two kilometres from the road, adopted by Martín López. Nevertheless, Poels maintained his benefit to remain away for a lone victory.
After former chief and allrounder Tibor del Grosso (Deceuninck-Alpecin) was dropped eight kilometres from the road, Poels now heads the GC by 23 seconds forward of his teammate Martín Lopez.
Stage 5 from Marmaris to Aydan ought to see the sprinters again in motion earlier than a second and doubtlessly decisive summit end on Friday at Selcuk.
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