News | Tour of Turkey • April 17, 2019
Tour of Turkey: the Polanc-Conti duo managing well
5th place for the Slovenian rider, 7th for the Italian
The Tour of Turkey stage two saw UAE Team Emirates take fifth with (Jan Polanc) and seventh (Valerio Conti). And unfortunately, Sebastian Molano crashed on the 183.3km stage from Tekirdag to Eceabat.
The incident at 70km remaining left the sports directors Marco Marzano and Bruno Vicino worried, but the Colombian got going again after few moments on the ground expressing considerable pain. The 24-year-old climbed on his Colnago and managed to get back into the group, without showing significant physical consequences.
The very complicated stage final saw the Polanc-Conti pair move skilfully and work into the top 10 behind the winner Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe). The Slovenian is now in fourth overall and the Italian climber is fifth, both at 20″ from leader Bennett.
“The arrival was complicated, we raced about a kilometre down a narrow road and then took the last few hundred metres uphill at high speed. The team’s work to keep the lead positions was fundamental,” explained Polanc (photo) “Valerio and I were not able to fight for the win, but the placings are still good and leave us confident for the next few days. I still felt the pain in my ribs from the fall I was involved in yesterday. I hope that discomfort will soon fade“.
The third stage (Canakkale-Edremito, 122.6 km) will cover a climb at 74km from the finish and afterwards, the road will descend and run flat for the last 35km.
Stage 2 results
1 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-hansgrohe 4h11’48”
2 Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-hansgrohe s.t.
3 Jhonatan Restrepo (Col) Manzana Postobon s.t.
5 Jan Polanc (Slo) UAE Team Emirates s.t.
General classification after stage 2
1 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-hansgrohe 7h44’02”
2 Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-hansgrohe 14″
3 Jhonatan Restrepo (Col) Manzana Postobon 16″
4 Jan Polanc (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 20″
5 Valerio Conti (Ita) UAE Team Emirates s.t.
