Alpecin-Deceuninck skillfully avoids crashes as Dehairs claims first pro victory at Tour of Turkey

While most eyes will be on Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, the Tour of Turkey deserves some attention. The eight-day stage race promises to be a great competition with a number of tough stages. However, the first stage was completely flat. The stage in and around Antalya was sure to be one for the sprinters, and there were quite a few fast men at the start.

Even though the course was not ideal for it, several riders managed to break away. Eight men from continental teams opened up a gap of about a minute and a half. Among them were three Turkish riders who seized the opportunity to show themselves in their home country. But on the flat roads, they had little chance, and as the race progressed, the breakaway's lead dwindled.

With 30 kilometers to go, it was almost over for the breakaway group, but not before a nasty crash in the peloton. Pablo García (Polti VisitMalta) went down and took Owen Geleijn (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Tibor del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Bram Welten, and Casper van Uden (Picnic PostNL) with him. The latter was one of the favorites for the stage win, but fortunately, he could continue and rejoin the peloton. With 15 kilometers to go, the breakaway group was caught: a sprint was on the cards.

The Uno-X riders showed themselves for Alexander Kristoff, but Lotto also made a move for Elia Viviani. Van Uden also reported at the front and got a luxurious lead-out from Frank van den Broek, the defending champion in Turkey. However, Kristoff had the best lead-out riders. A crash in the final kilometer disrupted everything, and Alpecin-Deceuninck came out on top. Rickaert launched Simon Dehairs, who went early and managed to stay ahead of Matteo Malucelli (XDS Astana).