After Sunday’s opening stage success and a sprint win with Fabio Jakobsen, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL set out to try and double-up on Monday afternoon and go for back-to-back wins at the Tour of Türkiye. Awaiting them was a tricky stage, with a long climb coming in the final third which was followed by the oxymoron of a “rolling plateau”, a fast descent and dash along the coast before a punchy uphill drag to the line.
Controlling from the off, the team rode well and took ownership of the race lead with Benjamin Peatfield and Johan Dorussen doing good early work with the six rider breakaway up the road. Approaching the main difficulty of the day some of the other teams then upped the tempo, looking to thin out the bunch. Unfortunately, at around two kilometres to the crest of the climb Jakobsen had to let go of the group with Julius van den Berg and Bram Welten alongside him to see if they could come back over the top. Those at the front kept the pace on, with Frank van den Broek riding well to cover any attacks and Tobias Lund Andresen sitting in the bunch to save as much energy as possible for the finale.
Approaching the finish the attacks flew once more with Van den Broek once again be sharp to react and making sure the team were represented, but ultimately the day would come down to a reduced bunch sprint. Van den Broek brought Lund Andresen forward inside the last kilometre, dropping him off in a good position at the front. Unfortunately some other riders moved around the outside of Lund Andresen and he was boxed in somewhat against the barriers, meaning he had to launch his sprint late. Coming with speed, he surged past several opponents to get up and take a good third place at the line; a result which moves him up to second on GC after the stage.
