Del Grosso attacks, but Malucelli wins stage and Poels secures GC victory in Turkey

After several harrowing days, the Tour of Turkey ended with a flat weekend. Saturday's stage was won by Elia Viviani, who claimed his first victory in 2.5 years for Lotto. The Italian also had a chance on Sunday, as it was the flattest stage of the race. The two small climbs along the way did not cause much concern, partly because the top of the last climb was more than 50 kilometers from the finish line.

Five riders broke away from the start of the race in Cesme. Among them was the British rider Zeb Kyffin of Unibet Tietema Rockets. Later, four more riders joined them, including three Turkish riders. They battled it out for the mountain points, as the nine breakaway riders could not win the stage. At least, that's how it looked. The peloton, led by Lotto and XDS Astana, never gave them more than a two-minute lead. With 50 kilometers to go, the gap was less than a minute after the top of the last climb.

The nine riders at the front saw their lead dwindle, and Tibor del Grosso saw this as a great opportunity. He dove into the descent like a falcon and caught up with the leading group. With the fresh legs of the stage winner of stage 2, the breakaway riders tried to stay ahead of the peloton for as long as possible, and they succeeded. Together, they were strong, and the sprinter teams had difficulty closing the gap. Del Grosso's pace thinned out the leading group a bit. Did the group still have a chance?

The difference was just under half a minute at the start of the last 10 kilometers. The peloton struggled to catch the breakaway, with Del Grosso doing most of the work at the front. The breakaway riders were caught with just under 4 kilometers to go despite considerable effort.

So, we prepared for the highly anticipated sprint in the streets of Izmir. Uno-X still had an almost intact sprint train for Alexander Kristoff, but in the end, it was Malucelli who came out of nowhere. The Italian put the icing on the cake of a great week for XDS-Astana, which scored four stage wins in Turkey and also won the GC with Poels.