Tour of Turkey 2014 - Stage 3
The Tour of Turkey's third stage took place today, with the road finally tilting uphill, meaning the race leader Mark Cavendish would soon be passing his blue leader's jersey onto the strongest man at the end of today's stage. The stage was 184.7 kilometres long from Finike to Elmali, with favourites including Alexandr Dyachenko, the defending champion, and Luis Leon Sanchez of Caja Rural.
A breakaway thought they'd try their luck anyway, but their lead was never too big, the peloton weren't going to let a breakaway rider take control of the race on one of the vital general classification riders. MTN Qhubeka were among the teams to fancy their chances today, their man Merhawi Kudus is tipped for big things in the future, and he had the experienced German Linus Gerdemann in support of him.
Crashes unfortunately would have a major effect on affairs today, Simon Yates of Orica-GreenEDGE unfortunately crashed out of the race with a broken collarbone, meaning Adam Yates would be left to do the job for the Aussie outfit. Another big crash occurred on the run in to the final climb, with riders from Neri Sottoli and Torku Sekerspor going down, and not getting up very quickly.
The final climb was tough, and multiple small attacks went away but to no avail. Linus Gerdemann did a good job of pacing the front group up the climb, by which time race leader Mark Cavendish had been well distanced as expected. Cofidis had good numbers in the front pack, but the racing was undecided until Rein Taaramae of Cofidis put in a big attack, which only Adam Yates could follow.
The duo worked well together in the last few kilometres, and it soon became apparent the gap was too big for the rest of the group to catch. Taaramae accelerated again near the line, and this time Yates couldn't hold the wheel. Taaramae, the Estonian champion, won the stage, ahead of Yates. Romain Hardy of Cofidis pipped Kudus of MTN for the line to make it a double podium for Cofidis, who have now took control of the Tour of Turkey 2014.