Monster climb delivers stage win for Bagatin and GC shake-up in the Tour of Turkey

Christian Bagatin claimed a stunning stage win on the brutal Feslikan climb in stage six of the Tour of Turkey. The 23-year-old Italian rode clear from the breakaway and held on solo for the final 21 kilometres to take the first professional win of his career. The climb also turned the general classification upside down.

The Tour of Turkey had largely been a sprinters' race until Friday. Tom Crabbe had taken two stage wins, Stanisław Aniołkowski had claimed another, and Casper van Uden delivered Picnic PostNL their first win of the season with a commanding sprint in stage five. But Friday, like stage three before it, belonged to the climbers.

The 128-kilometre stage from Antalya finished atop the Feslikan — 21.4 kilometres at an average of 8.3%. It is longer and harder than the Col de la Madeleine. With the gaps tight after five stages, the overall classification was completely up for grabs. Iván Sosa (Equipo Kern Pharma) led going in, but nothing was settled.

From the gun, riders queued up to animate the day's breakaway, and attacks rained down throughout the opening hour. A group of 14 finally escaped for good after 50 kilometres. Among them were Tim Marsman and two of his Alpecin-Premier Tech teammates, Jonas Rickaert and Sente Sentjens.

The group built an advantage of almost seven minutes — a comfortable margin, given that nobody in the break sat close to the top of the standings. The gap held steady all the way to the foot of the Feslikan. Then the climb hit, and the group splintered immediately.

Three men showed the best legs in the break: Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Bagatin (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort) and Feritcan Samli (Spor Toto). Samli was the first to lose contact. Isasa then found Bagatin's tempo too high to match. The young Italian was alone out front with 15 kilometres still to climb.

In the peloton, Cofidis and TotalEnergies began lifting the pace — but not yet at full gas. There was still close to an hour of climbing ahead, and the gradient kept coming at over 8%.

Caja Rural took over the pacemaking in the bunch as Fabien Doubey (TotalEnergies) attacked from 12 kilometres out. The Frenchman never got close to Bagatin, who had kept the peloton more than three minutes back with five kilometres to go.

It was only in the final, steepest stretch that the GC contenders came apart. Sebastian Berwick (Caja Rural) rode clear, forcing Sosa's team to respond. The Colombian came through alongside Jordan Jegat before trying his luck solo. The accelerations ate into Bagatin's lead fast — but not fast enough. With just one kilometre left, his margin was still large enough. The Italian crossed the line first for a debut professional victory.

Berwick arrived a minute later in second. His advantage over Sosa — who was overtaken by Jegat in the closing metres — was enough to take the race leader's jersey.