Aussie Sebastian Berwick took over the race lead at the Tour of Türkiye after a decisive move on the brutal final climb to Feslikan, while Christian Bagatin turned a long breakaway into a career-defining stage win.
The Queen stage from Antalya to Feslikan, 131 km capped by a brutal 21-km ascent averaging 8.4 per cent, always looked set to reshape the general classification. And it did just that.
A large breakaway went clear well before the climb, with multiple teams represented, including a strong presence from Alpecin-Premier Tech. The peloton never fully committed to the chase, allowing the group to build a buffer of more than six minutes heading into the final ascent.
From there, Bagatin made his move early. The 23-year-old Italian attacked his fellow escapees and committed to a long solo effort up to nearly 1,900 m. It looked ambitious…maybe too ambitious. But he just kept going.
Behind, the favourites hesitated. TotalEnergies briefly lifted the pace, even sending Geoffrey Bouchard up the road, but it didn’t seriously threaten the lone leader.
Then came the GC fight.
Caja Rural-Seguros RGA raised the tempo for Berwick, and once the gradients bit in the final kilometres, he went. Ivan Ramiro Sosa tried to respond, with help at first, but couldn’t quite match the Australian’s acceleration. A brief reshuffle saw attacks and counters, but Berwick had the final say, cracking Sosa late on the climb to seize the leader’s jersey.
Up ahead, Bagatin was fading—but not fast enough to be caught. He held on through the steepest ramps to take his first professional victory, just ahead of the charging GC group.
Alpecin-Premier Tech’s Noah Ramsay did his best to limit his losses finishing 28th overall. The Toronto native drops a few spots overall to 22nd with a few stages remaining. Sprinter Riley Pickrell (Modern Adventure Pro Cycling) was happy to cruise in in 110th– took a brilliant second at Stage 4, and big climbs are not his thing, let’s say. The Victoria rider will have another shot at a result during Stage 8–it’s mostly flat in Ankara.
Results powered by FirstCycling.com