Del Grosso unleashes monster sprint to claim first pro win at Tour of Turkey

It was time for day two at the eight-day Tour of Turkey. Stage 1 had been a pure sprinters’ festival, raced over pancake-flat roads where Simon Dehairs (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sprinted to his first pro victory and pulled on the blue leader’s jersey. But Monday brought a very different challenge. With 2500 meters of climbing and a nasty uphill drag to the line, Dehairs knew it was going to be a tough fight to keep the jersey.

At the start in Kemer, five riders jumped clear. Mateusz Gajdulewicz (Mazowsze Serce Polski) was joined by Antoine Berlin, Vinzent Dorn (BIKE AID), Willie Smit (China Glory), and Ahmet Örken (Spor Toto). The latter two were also part of the early break on stage 1. On the first climb of the day, leader Dehairs was briefly dropped, but he managed to fight his way back to the peloton. Still, it was not a good sign.

The breakaway never got much breathing room and when the biggest climb of the day started, labeled as a Mountain Prime in the race book (10.2 kilometers at 5 percent), the gap was already down to less than three minutes. Dehairs, who had already shown signs of struggling earlier, had to let the peloton go for good this time. A new leader in Turkey was guaranteed. The pace in the bunch stayed high thanks to some serious beating work by Unibet Tietema Rockets. The pressure was enough to crack even Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility), with the experienced Norwegian getting dropped just before the summit.

The mountain points went to Germany’s Vinzent Dorn, who will line up in the red climber’s jersey tomorrow. That was the last move from Dorn and the rest of the breakaway. The peloton kept the throttle open and caught the leaders with more than 50 kilometers still to go. From there it was all about descending toward a tricky finish. Despite the climbing and the full gas racing, a large peloton stayed intact with Unibet still setting the pace on the rolling coastal roads into Kalkan.

With 6 kilometers to go, the road started to rise and fall, setting off a series of attacks. None of them caused major splits, but they did throw plenty of chaos into the mix. Alpecin-Deceuninck tried to steady the ship by putting Lars Boven on the front, but the attacks kept flying. Mario Aparicio (Burgos-BH) showed some serious punch with a strong move, opening up a solid gap as the bunch briefly lost its organization.

Still, Alpecin-Deceuninck kept their cool. They reeled Aparicio back in inside the final kilometer, right as the road started to kick up again. Lotto Dstny took over at the front for Jasper De Buyst, who launched from a long way out. But he faded fast, and Tibor Del Grosso timed it perfectly, staying patient before launching in the final meters to grab his first pro victory.