Just three days on from his first-ever professional victory, Tobias Lund Andresen (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) scored his third, going long in the sprint on stage 7 of the Tour of Turkey to win in İzmir.
The Dane looked set to lead out star sprinter Fabio Jakobsen , but kept pushing on to the line after launching 200 metres out to hold off Timothy Dupont (Tartoletto-Isorex) and Sacha Weemaes (Bingoal WB) to triumph.
DSM had been among the teams to set up the sprint – another hectic finish – inside the final kilometre, with the Dutch squad joined at the front by Polti-Kometa, Bingoal WB, and Astana Qazaqstan.
However, it looked like it was the Kazakhstani squad who had control on the final run to the line on the flat stage. Davide Ballerini and stage 2 winner Max Kanter led out Mark Cavendish in prime position, though the Manxman looked to suffer a chain problem just as the sprint was launched.
Beside him, Andresen was on his way, leading from the front with Dupont and Weemaes behind him. Jakobsen, however, was caught a little further back, leaving 21-year-old Andresen to keep flying towards the finish line and grab another well-deserved victory.
“That was a lead out. Fabio was behind my wheel. Everything was perfect and according to plan. Then he told me he got a bit squeezed so I had to go for it. I couldn’t see anyone in my wheel and just went for my own sprint,” Andresen said after the finish.
“I just hoped Fabio was in my slipstream and could come around me at the end. But when you get so close to the finish you just have to secure the win and cross the finish line first.
“This is massive. Three wins in one stage race. And with the team, our momentum is just perfect. We have five wins in seven stages and we’re leading GC. It feels like a dream at the moment. GC is our priority. A GC win here will be massive.
“I’ll hopefully go for it at the Giro. That race is something else. I don’t want to get too cocky and too naive. We’ll take it day by day and Fabio is showing great speed and great form. I think we have a really good opportunity with the him.”
The stage, a mostly flat 125km run from Çeşme to İzmir, brought no changes to the general classification with another sprint in Istanbul rounding off the race on Sunday. Frank van den Broek (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) leads by four seconds from Merhawi Kudus (Terengganu), while Paul Double (Polti-Kometa) is third at nine seconds.
The green points jersey, meanwhile, passes shoulders from stage 3 winner Giovanni Lonardi (Polti-Kometa) to stage winner Andresen, who now looks to be the favourite to secure it on Sunday’s slightly trickier uphill sprint in Istanbul.
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