Cycling: Croatian Kristijan Durasek celebrated overall victory at this year's Tour of Turkey yesterday. The 27-year-old professional from Team Lampre-Merida confidently defended the lead he had gained two days ago - also because his closest pursuer Davode Rebellin (CCC) had to give up.
The decision in this year's Tour of Turkey was made at the 2nd mountain finish of the tour last Friday: Thanks to the excellent teamwork of his Lampre-Merida teammates, Durasek managed to take a full 43 seconds from the veteran Davide Rebellin, who had been leading until then, and took the turquoise jersey of the to take over the leadership. The Croatian went into the final two stages with a lead of more than 20 seconds.
There he didn't let anything get in the way, even if the victory that was believed to be certain began to shake the night before the last stage - Durasek developed a fever and complained of gastrointestinal problems. “It was really bad, at first I didn't know if I would be able to start. I then said to myself that I just had to try it.” In the end, his perseverance should pay off and his career success, which may have been greater so far, should be reflected in the books.
His pursuer Davide Rebellin was very unlucky on the last stage to Istanbul: because a dog suddenly ran onto the road, the 43-year-old fell together with his teammate Stefan Schumacher. Both had to give up due to the injuries they sustained. The stage finally went to Lluis Mas Bonet (Caja Rural) who outsmarted the sprinters when he broke away on a short climb with 1,5km to go and maintained his razor thin lead to the finish.
Final result Tour of Turkey 2015
[easy table th=“0″]1, Kristian Durasek,, Lampre-Merida, 31:06:44
2,Eduardo Sepulveda,,Brittany-Séché Environnement,0:00:32
3,Jay McCarthy,,Tinkoff Saxo, 0:00:56
4, Alex Cano Ardila,,Colombia,0:01:30
5,Serge Pauwels,,MTN-Qhubeka,0:01:32
6, Mirko Selvaggi,,Wanty-Groupe Gobert,0:01:58
7, Enrico Barbin,,Bardiani CSF,0:02:01
8,Tomasz Marczynski,,Torku Sekerspor,0:02:02
9,Adam Hansen,,Lotto Soudal,0:02:11
10, Javier Megias Leal,,Team Novo Nordisk,0:02:15
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