April 29, 2026
Yesterday's summit finish built a GC hierarchy that was slightly different than many would have predicted before the race. There are still plenty of chances to take time, especially on a tricky parcours like today's fourth stage from Marmaris to Fethiye. It's a short day at just 130 km but there are seven or eight spikes on the route that could split up the peloton and cause trouble for anyone caught behind. The riders will head primarily in a South East direction all day with the Treasures of Turkiye sprint at 72 km to go and a bonus sprint 20 km later. The main feature on course is a 7 km climb that starts in the village of Gürköy. It only averages 4.5% but the last 2 km are at nearly 7%. It's a wide highway climb so sitting tightly in the bunch will be of great benefit. The top comes 36 km from the finish but there are three more rises before the finish in Fethiye. Each hill is between 1.5 km and 2.5 km long at about 5% with the last one cresting 15 km from the line. The purest sprinters may not make it over but if the race is controlled like it has been so far this week, there should be a decent sized peloton contesting for the win.
Race Summary
The weather has been a wash, rinse, and repeat with day after day of warm but perfect conditions for racing. A break didn't get established until after the Treasures of Turkiye sprint. When a move did go, it contained Dario Igor Belletta of Polti-VisitMalta, Awet Aman of Istanbul Team, Muhammed Erkan of Konya Büyükşehir Belediye Spor, Samet Bulut of Muğla Büyükşehir Belediyesi Spor Kulübü, Feritcan Şamlı and Mustafa Tekin of Spor Toto, and Jonah Killy of Tarteletto-Isorex. With 64 km to go, on the approach to the bonus sprint, they had 2 minutes 20 seconds on the peloton being led by Alpecin-Premier Tech and Flanders Baloise.
Şamlı won the bonus sprint without too much trouble but their lead was dwindling as the main climb drew nearer. Cofidis started pulling quite hard in the peloton when they reached the main climb and the gap had fallen to 1 minute 35 seconds with 42.5 km remaining. When the road got steeper at 2 km from the top, the break split to just four at the front and their advantage was down to 25 seconds. Cofidis continued charging into the gap but Tekin leapt forward and was able to win the mountains points at the top on a bike throw. Everyone in the break was completely empty from their effort and were caught almost immediately as the descent started with 36 km to go.
Tom Crabbe of Flanders Baloise and Sente Sentjens of Alpecin-Premier Tech were both distanced on the climb and Cofidis were not going to make it easy for them to get back on. Crabbe burned two of his teammates but they managed to bring him and Sentjens into the main part of the peloton further down the descent. Cofidis hit it again on the next ramp and had the entire peloton in single file but everyone seemed present and accounted for as they went over the top.
The pace was infernal on the second hill with 21 km to go. Cofidis stretched the group out again to the point where gaps started to form around twenty wheels back. Byron Munton of Modern Adventure went on the attack which caused a GC reaction. Over the top, Munton had pulled a group of around fifteen riders clear. It was a disaster for Cofidis however because they weren't represented after having done so much of the damage to begin with. Fortunately for the French squad, there was no cohesion in the front group and they were brough back with 17 km to go at the start of the final ramp before the finish.
Mario Aparicio of Burgos-Burpellet BH went on the attack as soon as the last climb started. Another group of around fifteen riders broke clear but, once again, everything was stitched up on the downhill and Aparicio was hauled back with about 14.5 km to go. TotalEnergies decided to invest some effort to keep more attacks from going off the front which kept the peloton all together coming into the finale.
With 8 km to go, sprint lead out trains were moving up and positioning was an urgent task for all. Flanders Baloise took control with Modern Adventure who came to the front with six riders all in a line. At 3 km from the line, Modern Adventure were bumping shoulders with Polti-VisitMalta and ATT Investments with Flanders Baloise and XDS-Astana each trying to find a way through to the front. Alpecin-Premier Tech, Picnic-PostNL, and Flanders Baloise made their runs with 2 km to go after a brief slowing at the front of the bunch. No team had more than three riders left together making the positioning battle quite sketchy. It was a complete washing machine under 1 km to go with Caja Rural-Seguros RGA and MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort moving into the lead. Fernando Gaviria of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA opened his trademark long sprint at over 300 meters to go but Davide Persico of MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort was straight on his wheel with Manuel Peñalver of Polti-VisitMalta and Riley Pickrell of Modern Adventure following. Gaviria was swallowed up as Persico came passed. Persico and Pickrell were neck and neck at 50 meters from the line but coming from the third row with speed was Stanisław Aniołkowski of Cofidis. Aniołkowski got a clean run out of Pickrell's slip stream and came around with just 20 meters to go. A lunge on the line from Pickrell wasn't enough to hold off Aniołkowski who took the win and validated Cofidis's tactics in the last 40 km. Pickrell settled for second on the day with Persico behind in third.