Results Tour of Turkey 2026 Stage 1 | Tom Crabbe denies breakaway with sprint win in Turkiye opener

Tom Crabbe (Team Flanders - Baloise) won Stage 1 of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkiye in a bunch sprint, completing the 148.7km stage in 3:23:57 after the day’s early breakaway was caught inside the final kilometres.

Simon Dehairs (Alpecin-Premier Tech) finished second after launching his sprint inside the final 400 metres, with Davide Persico (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort) third on the line.

An early five-rider breakaway featuring Mewael Girmay, Ahmet Can Akpinar, Halil Ibrahim Dogan, Kaan Soylu Ozkalbim and Michal Pomorski moved clear in the opening phase of the stage. The group established a lead of just over four minutes on the peloton, with the gap stabilising through the first half of the day.

Pomorski proved the most active rider in the move, taking maximum points at the first categorised climb before also winning both intermediate sprints contested during the stage.

The race began to shift after the halfway point, with Team Picnic PostNL and Alpecin-Premier Tech first reported at the front of the peloton, later joined by Team Flanders - Baloise. The gap to the breakaway fell steadily from over four minutes to below three, before continuing to drop towards one minute inside the final 40 kilometres.

Despite briefly holding just over a minute’s advantage inside the final 20 kilometres, the breakaway began to fragment under pressure, with Ozkalbim dropped from the front group.

The remaining four riders were eventually reeled in inside the final 10 kilometres, with Pomorski caught first before Girmay, Akpinar and Dogan were also brought back into the peloton.

With the race coming back together, teams moved to the front in preparation for a sprint finish, with Team Picnic PostNL, Alpecin-Premier Tech and Team Flanders - Baloise all represented in the closing kilometres.

Dehairs launched his sprint from the front inside the final 400 metres, but Crabbe was able to come past in the closing metres to take the victory, with Persico completing the podium.