Big races are never without their danger, but yesterday’s crash on Stage Two of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey was one of the most spectacular Cyclo has ever seen. With just 500m left on the 153km route from Alanya to Antalya the peloton was beginning to split for final sprint position when Mark Renshaw (Blanco) clipped wheels and caused a domino spill that saw the majority of likely candidates for victory hit the tarmac. Only the lucky few ahead of Renshaw escaped the carnage, including Aidis Kruopis of Orica-GreenEdge who scraped a fortuitous win as a result of the accident. Clearly aware that luck runs both ways, Kruopis commented post-race: ‘I feel very good to have won today… I had a bit of bad luck with Qatar and Langkawi. I was looking for a victory at both of those races and came up empty. It was especially nice to take the victory today after that.’
André Greipel – third in yesterday’s calamitous stage – goes into today’s 153.5km stage from Antalya to Elmali in overall lead.