April 30, 2026
We're over the halfway mark in the Tour of Turkiye and there has been a nice diversity of tactics which has kept us wondering what will happen next. Today's 180 km stage from Patara to Kemer should also be interesting given the placement of the obstacles along the route. The race continues its trek South and will start to travel East around the headland of the Teke Peninsula. The first of two categorized climbs starts after 35 km of racing outside of the seaside city of Kaş, up to Ağullu. The climb is 9.4 km at 6.4% with the steepest sections at the bottom. A 20 km rolling plateau takes the riders to a long descent back down to the shoreline for over 50 km of flat racing for both the Bonus Sprint and the Treasures of Turkiye sprint. Things get complicated for the sprinters with 45 km to go at the start of the final climb. Like most of the racing this week, the climb is a wide highway but it's 7.4 km at 5.6% and there will be some who don't make it over the top with the peloton. There is a long descent with one steep ramp about 15 km after the summit with the last 20 km on flat roads to line in Kemer.
Race Summary
The weather has hardly changed all week and the riders set off under gloriously warm Mediterranean sunshine from the ancient ruins of Patara. With the prospect of a break making it to the finish, it took hours for a move to form. The peloton was together over the first climb and through the Bonus Sprint, 82 km into the race. In the end, a hearty group of ten riders got away and, shortly after the Treasures of Turkiye sprint with 55 km to go, the group had 1 minute 50 seconds on the peloton. The riders in the break were Lev Gonov of XDS-Astana, Jonas Rickaert of Alpecin-Premier Tech, Timo de Jong of Picnic-PostNL, Javier Ibáñez of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Xabier Isasa and Iker Mintegi of Euskatel-Euskadi, Fabien Doubey of TotalEnergies, Owen Geleijn of Unibet Rose Rockets, Nicolas Debeaumarché of Cofidis, and Mark Stewart of Modern Adventure.
Polti-VisitMalta, MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort, and Solution Tech-Nippo Rali were driving very hard in the peloton towards the lower slopes of the climb with riders swinging off after having done their turn on the front. When the climb began with 46 km to go, the gap was down to 1 minute 15 seconds as race leaders Equipo Kern Pharma took control of the pace setting.
Even with a rider in the break, TotalEnergies were looking to be aggressive and they sent Geoffrey Bouchard on the attack from the peloton with 3.5 km to the top. It took a kilometer but a reaction came and the bunch strung out in single file. Jordan Jegat counter attacked and a split formed without race leader Iván Ramiro Sosa. The Jegat group bridged to the break 1,500 meter from the top and went straight passed. Doubey was handily placed in the break and he was able to pull Jegat clear of the rest of the race to make two TotalEnergies riders at the front. All of the action put Sosa into trouble and he was gapped off the back with 500 meters still to climb. He fortunately had Ibon Ruiz with him to pace to the summit but the bunch were flying in front.
By the top, Jegat and Doubey were caught by the main body of the peloton but everyone was struggling to hold the wheel and the group was swinging across the road. The Sosa group crested about 10 seconds after the last rider of the peloton but there was no slowing up when the downhill began. Ruiz pulled for kilometer after kilometer and finally closed the last bike length for Sosa with 34 km to go but he had to spend every ounce of energy to do so. The pace went out of the peloton which numbered between 50-60 riders. There were multiple attacks that got little gaps but there was always some indecision which brought each one back.
The attacking continued and with 25 km to go, third overall Nicolas Breuillard of TotalEnergies squirreled away with no reaction. He built a 20 second lead but the peloton got organized on the pedaling descent and caught the Frenchman with 20.5 km to go. XDS-Astana lined up at the front of the peloton to control because their fast man, Lev Gonov, had managed to stay in the group over the climb and was one of the few pure sprinters remaining in contention. Teams started to line up in color order with 10 km to go which gave us a chance to check who was actually in the group. The main names that we hadn't seen until now were César Macías of Burgos-Burpellet BH and Casper Van Uden of Picnic-PostNL who had five teammates there with him for a potential lead out.
Teams with one or two riders in the group were taking pulls then swinging off to keep the pace quick through to the finish. ATT Investments worked hard to win the battle into the last sharp corner at 1,800 meters to go and they strung the bunch out when they exited the corner. Picnic-PostNL regrouped and hit the front at 1 km to go with three riders in front of Van Uden. 350 meters from the line, Davide Ballerini of XDS-Astana got a run off the Picnic-PostNL train and came flying passed. Van Uden was quick to respond and jumped to close the gap but Ballerini had come with speed and opened three bike lengths to Van Uden. The long sprint proved to be too much for Ballerini who faded. Van Uden came around Ballerini and powered to a convincing victory, the first for the team all season in what would have been an emotional moment after so much disappointment and stress. Marcin Budziński of MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort finished a distant second with Nikita Tsvetkov of Bardiani CSF 7 Saber in third place.