CYCLING

Daily Diary: Ambrose talks Turkey - Stage 7

By Aaron S Lee

New Zealand’s Scott Ambrose safely delivers team leader Javier Mejías to the finish to remain just two seconds off top 10 with one day remaining.

IZMIR, Turkey—The world’s “fastest man on two-wheels” made it look easy by winning his third stage of the week at the 51st Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey on Saturday. British sprinter Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) is now one victory away from tying his 2014 race results.

After losing ground on the final climb, QuickStep piloted the ‘Missile’ back to the leading group to take the his ninth win of the 2015 season, ahead of Andrea Piechele (Bardiani CSF) in second place and Kristian Sbaragli (MTN - Qhubeka), third. 

Croatian Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), who lifted the leader’s jersey from Italian Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) on stage 7, had a puncture just inside the last 3 kilometres but retained the overall lead.

For New Zealand neo-pro Scott Ambrose (Team Novo Nordisk), it was more of the same as he spent the day marking team leader and GC contender Javier Mejías to the finish to maintain his 11th place overall (+2m22s) – just two seconds outside the top 10 with one stage to go.

Ambrose talked to NZ Bike just prior to the 124km city circuit on stage 8 to get his thoughts on stage 7 and the team’s strategy to get Mejías safely to the line over the final day of racing.

Scott’s diary entry: Stage 7 – Selcuk - Izmir, 166km
And I thought stage 6 was a long day.

After spending 166 kilometres on the bike, we had to fly from the finish in Izmir to Istanbul for the final stage on Sunday. By the time we landed, gathered our bags, drove to the hotel, ate dinner, got a massage and had a team meeting is was closing in on midnight and time to go to bed.

So unlike, the previous days this week, I am making my diary entry just prior to the stage 8 start.

As for yesterday, it was a good day for the team with Javier getting in the front group and keep time on general classification (GC) and remain in 11th place overall. We all worked hard to protect him throughout the day it was pretty nervous bunch going in to the bottom of the climb so we made sure he was near the front at the base.

Most of us rolled in to the finish in the grupetto.

It was pretty fast going in to the bottom of the last climb to bring the break back and I think the GC guys started playing at the top.

From the top to the finish was too long so much of the pack came back together and once our job was done we saved our legs for stage 8.

I think anything can happen today, but I think it will be a bunch sprint so our goal is to keep Javier safe and up therein the front, and if does split he will be in there. Our job is not done, so we still have to pay attention.

With our teammate Kevin De Mesmaeker out sick after an impressive breakaway showing on the opening stage, we are a man down, but if it comes down to a bunch sprint Andrea Peron (ITA) and Martijin Verschoor (NED) will be ready. We will be trying to get them up there and trying to keep them safe the same as Javier.

It’s a domestique role for me again today, so fingers crossed we can keep Javier out of trouble, possibly pick up a stage win and perhaps move into the top 10 in GC.

In the meantime, stay tuned.
-Scott Ambrose





Tomorrow’s entry: Stage 8 – Istanbul - Istanbul, 124km
Stage results (top 5)
1. Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep)
2. Andrea Piechele (Bardiani CSF)
3. Kristian Sbaragli (MTN-Qhubeka)
4. Manuel Belletti (Southeast)
5. Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica-GreenEdge)

General classification (top 5)
1. Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida)    00”
2. Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polkowice)   21”
3. Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) 32”
4. Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo)            1’14”
5. Alex Cano (Colombia)      1’30”

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.