Poli makes the break on stage three in Turkey

The sprinters again came to the fore on stage three of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey with a flat run from Cesme to Izmir, but only after Verona native Umberto Poli animated the early breakaway for Team Novo Nordisk.

Umberto Poli:

“We managed to go clear after around 10km of racing, there had been some really early attacks, but nothing was sticking, and I managed to follow the right moves to get in the breakaway. It’s a bit like cat and mouse at times and I’m happy that I chose the right wheel and the right time to go.”

“It was quite a short day, but fast and our group kept getting smaller until there were only four of us left up against the sprinters team’s trying to reel us in and we knew that it would be very unlikely that we made it and once I dropped back into the bunch I got lucky again…there was a pretty big crash and thankfully I was in the right place to just miss it.”

General Manager Vassili Davidenko:

“Today was definitely a stage with two sides for us and we started really well with Umberto following the early attacks and getting into the breakaway. That was the first objective and Umberto was alive and wide awake when the move went. The group worked well together, and Umberto was one of the last guys to be caught, but on a short, flat stage today it was always going to be a day for the sprinters.”

“That was our second objective, but we suffered some misfortune at the end when Andrea punctured inside the last 4km and that was that. It’s a shame because Filippo did fantastic work bringing Andrea up to fifth wheel with 5km to go and it was probably the best position we had been in so far, but c’est la vie. It was totally out of our hands and can happen to anyone, one thing is for sure though, we ‘ll try again tomorrow.”

Photos: Mario Stiehl