Tour of Turkey: Alexey Lutsenko wins in Selçuk & takes overall lead

Alexey Lutsenko won the fourth stage of the Tour of Turkey. He also takes the lead in the overall standings.

Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) took victory in the fourth leg of the 54th Tour of Turkey and took the lead in the overall standings. The 26-year-old Kazakh defeated Diego Marissi (UAE Team Emirates) in the sprint after 207 km from Marmaris for the summit finish in Selçuk. Third was Eduard Prades (Euskadi-Murias).

In the climb to the finish, the favorites waited a long time for headwinds. After a few attacks, the leading group had already thinned out before the 1000-meter mark. About 300 meters from the finish Edu Prades picked up the pace. A little later, Diego Ulissi sprinted and took the lead. Lutsenko waited a moment longer, but in the end had the greater power reserves and took his fourth win of the season.

The overall leader of the tour so far, Sprinter Sam Bennett, had to break early in the final as expected and now has to hand over the leader jersey. Lutsenko leads now with four seconds ahead of Ulissi. Prades is overall third.

Outperformers of the day included Grega Bole (Bahrain-Merida), Diego Rubio (Burgos-BH), Jon Irisarri (Caja-Rural), Yecid Sierra (Manzana Postobon) and Aldemar Reyes (Manzana Postobon). Later, Iljo Keisse (Quick-Step), Preben Van Hecke (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and Nikolay Mihaylov (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) joined the top. Bole and Reyes fought for the mountain points and Bole was the first to reach the summit of the penultimate climb around 15 kilometers from the finish. But before the final climb all outliers were caught and Matteo Fabbro (Katusha-Alpecin) put on the slope the first attack. Later, other drivers attacked, including Sergio Pardilla (Caja-Rural), but none succeeded in settling decisively. So the little favorite group closed on the last kilometer.