André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) extended his record as the most successful rider in the modern history of the Tour of Turkey when he took a dominant win in the fourth stage of the 2015 edition of the race. Being one of the select few sprinter to have survived the final climb, he easily powered clear to distance Daniele Colli (Nippo-Vini Fantini) and Daniele Ratto (Unitedhealthcare) for his 10th stage win in the race while Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi) comfortable defended his overall lead.

For several years, André Greipel has used the Tour of Turkey to get back into action after the classics and the sunny race has always been a happy hunting ground for the strong German. With 9 stage victories, he went into this year’s race as the most successful rider in recent editions of the race and apart from last year when he was coming back from injury, he has always left the race with a victory.

After having been beaten by Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) in the first two sprint stages, Greipel had made it clear that he was looking to the harder stages in the middle of the week to try to take his 2015 victory in the race. Today he faced such an undulating parcours in stage 4 and he lived fully up to his promises by winning the sprint from a reduced bunch at the end.

Already yesterday Greipel had showed impressive climbing legs and so his teammates were always confident in their captain. Already early in the race, Lotto Soudal worked hard to bring back a strong 6-rider break with Natnael Berhane (MTN-Qhubeka), Kevin Seeldraeyers (Torku), Nicola Boem (Bardiani), Mattia Pozzo (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Florian Guillou (Bretagne) and Charles Planet (Novo Nordisk).

However, Cavendish was apparently confident in his chances and so he asked his teammates Guillaume Van Keirsbulck and Iljo Keisse to ride on the front inside the final 30km. They entered the final 25km with a deficit of 1.10 and at this point Lotto Soudal put Boris Vallee on the front to work with compatriots.

As they hit the final climb with 15km to go, the gap had come down to just 40 seconds and at this point a big crash had taken out one of the favourites Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) and his teammate Mario Costa. Vallee and Van Keirsbulck swung off and Keisse set the pace on the lower slopes while Boem launched the first attack from the unsuccessful attack breakaway.

Unitedhealthcare had big plans with an in-form Daniele Ratto and so they took over the pace-setting with Alessandro Bazzana and Davide Frattini and they made the peloton explode to pieces. Meanwhile, Pozzo was the first rider to get distanced from the break. Planet also briefly lost contact but he made it back to the leaders where Seeldraeyers was doing a lot of work.

With 11km to go, the peloton was significantly whittled down and now the attacking started. Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff-Saxo) and an Astana rider made the first move and as they were joined by Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Carlos Quintero (Colombia), CCC started to chase.

The Astana rider fell off and instead his teammate Valerio Agnoli took off. He passed the front trio before being joined by McCarthy, Quintero and Serge Pauwels (MTN-Qhubeka). Quintero made a small acceleration and those four riders had a nice advantage as they crested the summit.

Lluis Mas (Caja Rural) bridged the gap with a strong surge and the 5 leaders had now established a 10-second advantage. In the peloton, the CCC duo of Nikolay Mihaylov and Stefan Schumacher were chasing hard and they kept the gap stable for quite some time.

Cavendish was among the many riders to have been distanced and he found himself in a big group that wuickly say up. Meanwhile, Lotto Soudal realized that they needed to react and with 4km to go Gert Dockx took over from the CCC riders.

Another Lotto rider and Adam Hansen worked hard while the attacking started in the break. Agnoli and Quinetro both made unsuccessful moves before Mas and McCarthy got clear.

A rider bridged the gap to the chasers but he went down in a crash with 2km to go. At this point, the chasers were caught as Hansen continued to work hard in the peloton.

McCarthy and Mas were still clear when they passed the flamme rouge but now Orica-GreenEDGE took over with Cameron Meyer. The Australian brought the leaders back with 700m to go and then his teammate Christian Meier took over as he tried to lead Magnus Cort out.

However, the Canadian was unable to maintain his speed and so he was passed by the Southeast pair of Alessandro Petacchi and Manuel Belletti and the latter could start the sprint from a perfect position. Greipel found himself a little further back but when he took off he easily distanced his rivals, winning the stage ahead of Daniele Colli and Ratto.

Davide Rebellin finished safely in the peloton and so he defended his 7-second lead over Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida). He takes it into tomorrow’s fifth stage which is a hilly affair with two climbs at the midpoint. In the finale, the riders go down a long descent before they hit a short 1km ramp to the finish in Pamukkale.

A hilly finale

After the queen stage, the Tour of Turkey continued with a very lumpy stage that brought the riders over just 132.9km from Fethiye to Marmaris. There was only one categorized climb after around 30km of racing but the course included several smaller ascents throughout the day. Inside the final 10km the riders would go up a tough ascent before they descended to the flat finish where a reduced bunch has traditionally sprinted for the win.

Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) failed to sign in this morning but he was one of the 163 riders who took the start under a beautiful sunny sky. They got the race off to a fast start with lots of attack but the early break got clear surprisingly early. After the hectic opening, Paolo Simion (Bardiani), Brice Feillu (Bretagne), Timothy Roe (Drapac), Genki Yamamoto (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Kenny De Ketele (Topsport) and Sergey Grechyn (Torku) got clear and after 6km of racing, they already had an advantage of 40 seconds.

The peloton splits up

The peloton slowed completely down and at the 20km mark, the gap had gone out to 3.27. As they hit the climb, however, some teams wanted to make the race hard and due to the faster pace, several splits occurred.

De Ketele led Simion and Grechyn over the top at a point when the gap was down to 30 seconds. On the descent, the peloton continued its fast riding though and while a regrouping took place, the gap continued to come down. At the 40km mark, it was only 18 seconds but the escapees managed to extend it to 30 seconds. The second bunch was at 42 seconds.

A new break gets clear

However, the peloton was not slowing down and so they brought the escapees back. This opened the door for new attacks and a 6-rider group briefly got clear which allowed Feillu, Brutt and Adam Phelan (Drapac) to take the points in the intermediate sprint.

The move was brought back and instead Planet, Seeldraeyers, Guillou, Boem and Pozzo got clear. Berhane spent a long time as a lone chaser but he managed to bridge a 45-second gap while the peloton slowed down and regrouped.

Lotto Soudal hit the front

CCC allowed the gap to go out to 2.30 where Tomasz Kiendys and Mateusz Taciak kept it stable for a long time. Meanwhile, Cavendish rejoined the peloton after a puncture.

With 55km to go, Lotto Soudal decided to up the pace and Kris Boeckmans quickly brought the gap down to 1.20. That was too early though and as he again slowed down, the gap again went out ot 2.20 with 42km to go.

Etixx-QuickStep take control

Boeckmans, Kiendys and Taciak continued to ride on the front but the gap didn’t really come down. When Pozzo led Planet and Seeldraeyers over the line in the Turkish Beauty Sprint with 32km to go, it was 2.35.

As they approached the bottom of the penultimate climb, Etixx-QuickStep hit the front with Van Keirsbulck and his fast pace saw the gap come down quickly. With 25km to go, it was only 1.10 and it was a largely intact peloton that crested the summit. Moments later Keisse joined him and this started the exciting finale.