Matteo Malucelli wins crash-marred opening stage of the Tour of Antalya

The Italian sprinter won the bunch sprint on stage one of the Turkish Tour of Antalya to capture the first win of the season and the first lead of the race.

A breakaway of Trym Holther (Drone Hopper - Androni Giocatolli), Ben Perry (WiV SunGod), Bodi del Grosso (ABLOC CT), Giulio Masotto (Team Corratec) and Moritz Kretschy (Germany national team) marked the day's breakaway on what a slightly windy day, that was safe until the finale.

A mass crash marked the finale of the sprint as several riders came down. After race favourite Jay Vine abandoned the race early on for unknown reasons, it is expected that some didn't manage to go over the finish line as many came down with around 500 meters to go.

The sprint was launched by Bingoal's Karl Patrick Lauk but he didn't manage to keep his lead, as stage winner Matteo Malucelli of Gazprom - Rusvelo took a photofinish win ahead of Alpecin Fenix's Jakub Mareczko who was initially thought to have won the stage.