With Theo Bos unable to cope with the climbing, Jetse Bol got a rare chance to sprint for himself in today's stage of the Tour of Turkey. The Dutchman did well to take sixth but most of his thoughts were on the dangerous descent that had led to a temporary neutralization of the stage.

Jetse Bol recorded a nice top 10 finish in the fourth stage of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey today. The Dutchman of Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM sprinted to a sixth place in Marmaris behind stage winner Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). 

“It was a strange day,” said Sports Director Michiel Elijzen afterwards. “When we started it was dry, although the clouds already looked threatening. Just before the first climb of the day, it began to rain - very hard. When the riders started the descent, 30 men immediately hit the tarmac because of the slippery road and the organisation decided to neutralise the race. We rode slowly until it was dry and then we started again. It was difficult for the riders to stay focused.” 

Jetse Bol, Rick Flens, Nick van der Lijke and Dennis van Winden coped with it well and also had the legs to hang on until the final climb. 

“Bol’s sixth place is a great result for the team,” Elijzen said. “Jetse earned it. He did well in Cologne last week, and this week, he’s strong again.” 

“Yeah, I’m happy,” Bol explained. “My shape is good and it’s nice to be able to sprint again. Rick did a fantastic job by dropping me off at the front. Unfortunately, I lost his wheel and had to start my sprint with 500 metres to go. Otherwise, I could’ve finished fourth. I’m very satisfied, however, also because I stayed with the first group on the final climb. In the last two years, I wasn’t able to do so here.” 

Bol was surprised about the circumstances along the way.

“It was bizarre how wet the roads were. On the climb, my rear wheel already slipped when I tried to stand up. On the way down, I unclipped my shoes from the pedals so that I could save myself if I’d slip away. I think we went up faster than down.” 

They face another difficult stage tomorrow with climbs in the first 100 kilometres. Elijzen expects that the sprinters’ teams and Cofidis, the team of overall leader Rein Taaramäe, will try to control the race. 

“I don’t think a bunch sprint is likely,” he added. “We’ll probably end up sprinting with a slightly smaller group. Hopefully, Theo Bos will be up there, but otherwise we can try with another quick guy. We have several riders for whom we can set up the sprint train.”