May 1, 2026
Today is the day that the GC positions will be written. The climb to Kıran on Stage 3 set the first ranking for the overall classification, but since then, race leader Iván Ramiro Sosa has showed weakness and has his teammates to thank for still wearing the Turquoise Jersey. The other riders in the top positions will have smelled blood however and will want to strike while there is still terrain to do so. The stage set for today is just 128 km long between Antalya and Feslikan and it's the definition of a hockey stick stage. The first 105 km are almost completely flat. There is the Treasures of Turkiye sprint with 69 km to go and a Bonus Sprint at 27 km to go but very little else of interest, that is until the start of the climb to Feslikan. At 21 km in length at an average gradient of over 8% with the summit at 1,900 meters above sea level, Feslikan rivals any of the biggest climbs that the peloton would take on in an Alpine stage of a Grand Tour. Unfortunately for the riders, the hardest part comes in the last 4.5 km which average over 10%. The only tactics that can be employed are pacing. It should take the best riders the better part of an hour from bottom to top and we should see the top 10 spread across minutes as they trickle in to the finish.
Race Summary
A bit of high cloud dampened the intense sun light which cooled the atmosphere down to 20C (68F) at the sea level start in Antalya. A large group of fourteen riders broke away after lots of attacking but when live coverage started at the base of the mountain with 21 km to go, only three remained. Those riders were Feritcan Şamlı of Spor Toto, Xabier Isasa of Euskatel-Euskadi, and Christian Bagatin of MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort. They had a sizeable lead of 6 minutes 30 seconds but that would be hard to hold on to when the GC riders take flight.
Cofidis led the peloton in the early kilometers of the climb which was interesting since they had no one within 3 minutes on GC. TotalEnergies added a man to the front and after about 5 km of the climb, they had cut 1 minute off the advantage of Bagatin who had gone off solo a few kilometers before. The bunch was still quite large with 13 km to go when Geoffrey Bouchard of TotalEnergies went on the attack which forced Caja Rural-Seguros RGA to chase in the favorites group. The first of the top ten in GC to suffer on the climb was Nicolas Vinokurov of XDS-Astana who started the day 50 seconds down in sixth place. He didn't panic however and was able to recover well further up the mountain.
Sebastian Berwick of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA called for more pace with 9 km to go from Abel Balderstone who was towing the favorites group along. 1 km later, updated gaps were given and Bagatin was still holding 3 minutes 40 seconds with Bouchard dangling just 20 seconds ahead of the peloton. As hard as Balderstone was going, Bouchard had him matched and Bagatin was holding his own up front. With 3.5 km to go, Bagatin had 3 minutes and the main GC riders still hadn't attacked.
Bouchard was caught 3 km from the top and immediately started riding on the front which distanced Balderstone. The group was still at least 20 riders strong but as Bouchard did his last effort, Berwick attacked and the group split to about to riders. Ibon Ruiz of Equipo Kern Pharma took up the chase for Iván Ramiro Sosa but Berwick was dancing away up the road. Jordan Jegat of TotalEnergies went in pursuit of Berwick with 2 km to go and Sosa jumped on his wheel. When Bagatin went under the 1 km to go banner, he had 1 minute 20 seconds on Berwick as Sosa was gaining ground after having distanced Jegat moments earlier.
The last 400 meters took a lifetime for Bagatin but he hauled his way up the steep slopes to the line with the last shred of energy in his body. He crossed the finish with arms in the air and was able to savor his first professional victory. Meanwhile in the GC battle, Berwick continued pushing all the way to the line to fight off Sosa. He started the day 13 seconds down on Sosa who was hovering at around that time gap when he reached 1km to go. When Berwick reached the finish line, he immediately stepped off his bike and laid down, completely exhausted by the effort. Berwick was 1 minute 1 second down on Bagatin and the clock was ticking for Sosa. Berwick picked up 6 bonus seconds with his second place which meant Sosa needed to finish in third and not more than 11 seconds later to retain the jersey. Sosa looked like he might just about make it but Jegat sprinted passed and snagged third place at 1 minute 13 seconds from Bagatin. Sosa finished on the same time but had lost the jersey.
When the calculations were made, Berwick took over the GC lead from Sosa by just 5 seconds. We hardly saw anything from Kamiel Bonneu of Solution Tech-Nippo Rali but the Belgian came home only 14 seconds down on Sosa and Jegat which puts him third overall at 59 seconds. There are two sprint/puncheur style stages left and with just 5 seconds separating Berwick and Sosa, the GC is not a done deal like would have been predicted at the top of the day.