Andre Greipel wins Tour of Turkey stage four

German sprinter Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) took the bunch sprint at the end of stage four of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey on Wednesday.

Greipel finished comfortably ahead of Daniele Colli (Nippo-Vini Fantini) in second, with Daniele Ratto (UnitedHealthcare) in third.

Stage three winner Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi) retains the overall race lead.

An escape group consisting of Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF), Florian Guillou (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Mattia Pozzo (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Charles Planet (Novo Nordisk) and Kevin Seeldrayers (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) was caught with 11km to go on the final climb.

A group of five riders subsequently managed to create a gap over the summit and on the fast descent to the line, including dangerman Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo) who started the day in fourth spot behind leader Rebellin.

As the road flattened out, the lead group's time advantage was whittled away after some hard work by Rebellin's CCC team and the peloton came back together for a bunch sprint. With double stage winner and former race leader Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) in a second group, it was down to German fastman Greipel to take the spoils, his third win of the season.

The Tour of Turkey continues on Thursday with stage five, from Mugla to Pamukkale over 159.9km. A relatively flat route means it should be another day for the sprinters. The race concludes on Sunday, May 3.

Results

Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey 2015, stage four: Fethiye to Marmaris, 131.9km

1. Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Soudal

2. Daniele Colli (Ita) Nippo-Vini Fantini

3. Daniele Ratto (Ita) UnitedHealthcare

4. Magnus Cort (Den) Orica-GreenEdge

5. Manuel Belletti (Ita) Southeast

6. Roberto Ferrari (Ita) Lampre-Merida

7. Carlos Barbero (Spa) Caja Rural

8. Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) MTN-Qhubeka

9. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Tinkoff-Saxo

10. Ahmet Orken (Tur) Torku Sekerspor all same time

Overall classification after stage four

1. Davide Rebellin (Ita) CC Sprandi Polkowice

2. Kristijan Durasek (Cro) Lampre-Merida at 7 secs

3. Eduardo Sepulveda (Arg) Bretagne-Seche Environnement at 50 secs

4. Jay McCarthy (Aus) Tinkoff-Saxo at 1-20

5. Serge Pauwels (Bel) MTN-Qhubeka at 1-23

6. Enrico Barbin (Ita) Bardiani-CSF at 1-29

7. Daniele Ratto (Ita) UnitedHealthcare at 1-42

8. Alex Cano (Col) Colombia at 1-46

9. Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto-Soudal at 1-57

10. Mirko Selvaggi (Ita) Wanty-Groupe Gobert at 2-04