Sunday 4 May 2014 18:12, UK
Adam Yates sealed overall victory of the Tour of Turkey as Mark Cavendish completed a British double by sprinting to his fourth win of the race on stage eight.
Yates, 21, from Bury, took a one-second lead over Estonia’s Rein Taaramae into the final day and extended his advantage to five seconds by finishing in the front group at the end of a flat 121km route around Istanbul.
It is his first professional stage-race victory and comes just five months after he stepped up to the senior ranks with the Australian team Orica-GreenEdge.
He said afterwards: "We came here racing for stages. When you decide to race for stages in the mountains, you can go for the overall as long as you stay up there on the sprint stages. I can’t thank the team enough. Hopefully there is more like this to come.”
Cavendish was also celebrating having avenged his defeats to Elia Viviani in the race’s previous two sprint finishes in a hard-fought finale.
Cannondale rider Viviani once again sat on the Manxman’s wheel going into the final 250m, but this time Cavendish was able to hold on for his sixth win of the year.
The Omega Pharma - Quick-Step rider said afterwards: "I’m really happy with my form. We are ahead of where we want to be at this time of year. I am really happy with how it has gone here and it is had put us in really good stead for the rest of the season.”
Yates had taken the lead of the race by winning stage six's summit finish at Selcuk and had to defend the slenderest of advantages on a potentially tense final day.
Taaramae, of Cofidis, hit the front of the peloton with 6km to go, but Yates's team-mates responded quickly and moved to the head of the field to snuff out any chance of a breakaway.
That set up a sprint finish, where once again Cavendish's team-mates dominated the run-in with a textbook leadout. Viviani and Astana's Andrea Guardini both sat in Cavendish's slipstream as they looked to spring a late charge, but the Manxman cut off Guardini by swinging left and then comfortably outpaced Viviani in a smart piece of sprinting.
Behind them, Taaramae lost four seconds on Yates after falling on the wrong side of a late split in the peloton.
Cavendish added: "I was able to sit on longer than I wanted. I thought I would have to go at 250m to the finish line, but Ale [team-mate Petacchi] was still going fast. I looked behind and saw some faces and knew I could sit 50m more and use my explosiveness."
Stage eight result
1 Mark Cavendish (GB) Omega Pharma – Quick-Step, 2:35:00
2 Elia Viviani (Ita) Cannondale, same time
3 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana, st
4 Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Lotto Belisol, st
5 Greg Henderson (NZ) Lotto Belisol, st
6 Theo Bos (Ned) Belkin, st
7 Aldo Ilesic (Slo) UnitedHealthcare, st
8 Michael van Staeyen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, st
9 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) MTN-Qhubeka, st
10 Ken Hanson (USA) UnitedHealthcare, st
Selected others
19 Adam Yates (GB) Orica-GreenEdge, st
31 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, +4sec
Final general classification
1 Adam Yates (GB) Orica-GreenEdge, 30:26:22
2 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, +5sec
3 Romain Hardy (Fra) Cofidis, +39
4 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale, +40
5 Davide Rebellin (Ita) CCC Polsat Polkowice, +44
6 Juan Jose Cobo (Spa) Torku Sekerspor, +45
7 Kristijan Durasek (Cro) Lampre-Merida, st
8 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, +51
9 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Belisol, +58
10 Enrico Barbin (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, +1:04
