Tour of Turkey 2021 – Stage 2 preview
By David Hunter
Konya > Konya 145km
The same as today, just a little bit longer.
There really isn’t much to say about the route, the final 50km is identical to today’s opening stage.
Weather
A little warmer than stage 1, but still not warm. The wind is light and won’t have an impact on the race.
Finale
Turns with 3.3km, 1.5km and 600m to go. You saw it today; this finish is harder than it looks. The big teams were surprised by the smaller teams, but I doubt that happens again.
Some got the final corner wrong today. They’ve now done it at race speed, so there’s no excuses this time round.
Contenders
Mark Cavendish – it wasn’t the best lead out for him today, but he still got in a good position for the final corner. Unfortunately another rider forced Hodeg to go wide and that was game over. With Deceuninck – Quick Step only starting the race with six men they’re at a disadvantage compared to most others, especially as Jakobsen isn’t participating in the sprint train. Today we saw them controlling the front with Keisse, I think they’ll let Rally do that job in the second stage. This means they can save Keisse for the sprint train giving them four strong men to help position Cav. He’ll be expecting a win.
Jasper Philipsen – as I mentioned in my stage 1 preview, his sprint train haven’t ridden together, and it showed. They should be better in this stage, but still won’t be good enough to dictate the final kilometre. If he’s going to win, he’ll need to have the speed to come past a few riders.
Andre Greipel – it wasn’t great from ISUN today, especially considering how strong their sprint train looks on paper. I think Greipel will find it hard to win sprints here.
Kristoffer Halvorsen – was really close today, I thought he had it. Uno-X did a great job in the closing stages, they were the team who bossed it. As I mentioned in my stage 1 preview, Halvorsen has been through a hard time over the last year, it was great to see him back fighting for a win. He’ll take confidence from today and he should be up there challenging again, especially if his sprint train can repeat today’s performance.
Arvid De Kleijn – he’s just back from a neck injury, which makes today’s win all the more surprising. He picked the right wheel in the sprint and just had enough gas to come past Halvorsen in the final 50m. Rally will now be expecting to control most of the stage, meaning less men to help in the sprint. Doubling up is going to be hard.
Pierre Barbier – still knocking on the door, his first pro win won’t be long coming. I’m a big fan of his, he is very good at holding position in the closing stages, even without too much help. If he gets a good position, this could be his day.
Prediction Time
Deceuninck – Quick Step to be better than today and Mark Cavendish to take the win.
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