Tour of Turkey: Fabio Jakobsen wins stage 1 bunch sprint in his first triumph for Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL

Fabio Jakobsen made the move to Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL but had a difficult start to the year. However, he begins to turn it around today at the Tour of Turkey as he wins the opening stage and becomes the first race leader.

The opening day of racing in Turkey was one where the sprinters were always going to be favoured. A group of six riders moved up the road early in the day to try and counter this: Marcel Camprubí, Jambaljamts Sainbayar, Filippo Ridolfo, Julian Borresch, Aljaz Turk and Michal Pomorski.

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The breakaway began to split in the final hour of racing despite the lack of true difficulties, but even with these moves the final survivors were caught with still a long 21 kilometers to go. A battle between the leadouts then slowly began in the run-in to Antalya.

Astana entered the final kilometer in the front of the peloton but lost it as other teams came up to the front. Mark Cavendish lost position as Alpecin-Deceuninck took over the head of the peloton, leading out Simon Dehairs. However, Dehairs could only do third as Fabio Jakobsen stormed to a dominant sprint victory on the day, beating Sasha Weemaes to second place.

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Profiles & Route Tour of Turkey 2024