Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) claimed stage four of the Tour of Turkey on Friday in a tight sprint finish to claim his first victory in the race.
Juan Jose Lobato of Nippo Vini Fantini Faizanè came in second and Bora Hansgrohe’s Sam Bennett finished third after nearly five and a half hours of racing.
“My team’s done a really great job all week and we’ve committed every day to go for the win and I haven’t rewarded them with the win, but I’m happy today to get that one. It was a super tough finish. I can’t remember the last time that I went that deep to win a race,” said Ewan.
“To be honest, I was on the wheel [of Bennett] and I was already 100 per cent. I was waiting for him to go and he popped a little bit, and I knew that I had to go straight away to catch the guy in front and get the win. Luckily I had enough to do that last sprint.”
Stage five on Saturday from the Aegean Bursa province to its Kartepe town will see the tour’s first mountainous stage with a 1,300-meter HC climb.
Bennett leads general classification with 16h25’42”, followed by his fellow Bora-hansgrohe rider Felix Großschartner and Jhonatan Restrepo of Manzana Postobón team.
Stage 2 – Crash
Stage 4 – WinWhat a week for @CalebEwan at #TUR2019 pic.twitter.com/3loEuTg4Vv
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) April 19, 2019
Tour of Turkey 2019 – stage 4 results (Balıkesir – Bursa):
| 1 | Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) | 5:21:38 |
| 2 | Juan Jose Lobato (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane) | ,, |
| 3 | Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 4 | Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 5 | Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 6 | Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 7 | Jon Aberasturi (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | ,, |
| 8 | Enrique Sanz Unzue (Euskadi-Murias) | ,, |
| 9 | Giovanni Lonardi (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane) | ,, |
| 10 | Gonzalo Serrano (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | ,, |
Tour of Turkey 2019 – general classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) | 16:25:42 |
| 2 | Felix Großschartner (Bora-hansgrohe) | +24” |
| 3 | Jhonatan Restrepo (Manzana Postobon) | +26” |
| 4 | Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) | +30” |
| 5 | Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 6 | Mauro Finetto (Delko Marseille Provence) | ,, |
| 7 | Gonzalo Serrano (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | ,, |
| 8 | Edgar Pinto (W52-FC Porto) | +33” |
| 9 | Sebastian Schönberger (Neri Sottoli–Selle Italia–KTM) | +34” |
| 10 | Cyril Barthe (Euskadi-Murias) | ,, |
