CYCLING

Daily Diary: Ambrose talks Turkey - Stage 4

By Aaron S Lee

Team Novo Nordisk neo-pro Scott Ambrose finishes Tour of Turkey stage 4 after nasty crash near Marmaris and gives NZ Bike the exclusive.

MARMARIS, Turkey—The 51st Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey reached its midway mark with reigning two-time German national champion André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) getting his first win of the race after a sprint finish on the 132-kilometre stage 4 from Fethiye to Marmaris on Wednesday.

Greipel dominated the closing hundred metres, winning by more than three bike lengths over Daniele Colli (Nippo-Vini Fantini), third was Daniele Ratto (UnitedHealthcare). The victory marks Greipel’s 10th stage win of his Tour of Turkey career.

For New Zealand neo-pro Scott Ambrose (Team Novo Nordisk), the day was a combination of ups and downs – literally. A day after taking on three categorised climbs – including a Cat 1 summit finish in Elmali – on Tuesday, Ambrose and many other riders were caught in the back half of a split while ascending the first climb of the day after a sudden surge from MTN-Qhubeka to take the sting out of the sprinters’ legs, such as Greipel and Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep), who had already won the first two stages of the race.

Following a quick descent, Ambrose was able claw back to the bunch that was still chasing a six-man break that included teammate Charles Planet (FRA).

The 20-year-old Auckland resident was then caught in a crash at the 112km mark after a nervous bunch were jockeying for position heading into the final climb.

Other than a few abrasions on his left elbow and hip, Ambrose gritted his teeth and immediately remounted the bike to take chase and rejoin the bunch. Ambrose finished 4 minutes 57 seconds behind Greipel, and drops to 15 minutes 19 seconds behind general classification (GC) leader and stage 3 winner Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polkowice).

A battered and bruised Ambrose immediately sat down with NZ Bike following the race, and Tour of Philippines stage- and points winner gives his exclusive take on the day and his thoughts on Thursday’s stage 4.

Scott’s diary entry: Stage 4 – Fethiye – Marmaris, 132km
Well, four down and four to go.

The race started aggressively with some teams, led by MTN-Qhubeka, wanting to test out the legs of the bunch, especially after yesterday’s really hard stage to Elmali.

On that first climb today there was a breakaway that had already gone, but like I said a few teams wanted to tire out the sprinters so we went full gas up that hill. The pressure caused a lot of splits in the peloton, but it was still a long way to the finish so we came back together again on the flats with the help of a strong tailwind.

It was a nervous bunch going into the bottom of the decisive climb and riders bumped into each other causing a few to go down. Unfortunately I went over the top of them, which happens in racing.

Luckily we had our team GC, Javier Mejías (ESP), up the road and out of harms way. Javier went really well today and came 14th over the line and he’s now 11th on GC, so it worked out really well. We also had Charles Planet (FRA) on the breakaway, which stayed out there quite a while and is great exposure for our team.

I got back up as fast as I could but our team sports director Vassili Davidenko told me to back off and ride tempo to save the legs for the remainder of the race.

It was a good call as if I pushed too hard perhaps I could have injured myself especially after the crash. It was better to take it easy and assess the damage than push super hard when something could be wrong. I sustained a bit of road rash on my elbow and hip, but otherwise I’m fine.

To be honest, I haven’t actually looked at stage 5 in too much detail yet, but I know it has a few little climbs in there, so we will try to stay near the front and keep our climbers safe. It looks like it could be a long downhill drag to the finish, so if it’s a sprint we will keep our sprinters Andrea Peron (ITA) and Martijn Verschoor (NED) up there and just see what happens.

Our sprinters stayed out of trouble today and are feeling good at the moment.

Again, we’re at the halfway point and I’m loving it here in Turkey. The country is amazing and it’s a nice place to race the bike. Both the hotels and the restaurants are first class and the hardest part is holding back at the buffets as the moment.

However, there’s still some work to do.
So stay tuned…
-Scott Ambrose






Tomorrow’s entry: Stage 5 – Muğla – Pamukkale, 160km
Stage results (top 5)
1. André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal)
2. Daniele Colli (Nippo-Vini Fantini)
3. Daniele Ratto (UnitedHealthcare)
4. Magnus Cort Nielson (Orica-GreenEdge)
5. Manuel Belletti (Southeast)

General classification (top 5)
1. Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polkowice)   00”
2. Kristijan Durasek (Lampre - Merida)   07”
3. Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) 50”
4. Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo)            1’20”
5. Serge Paulwels (MTN-Qhubeka)    1’23”

Aaron S. Lee is a cycling and triathlon columnist for Eurosport and a guest contributor to NZ Bike Magazine. Image credit: Kei Tsuji | Tim De Waele