Leadership changes hands at the Tour of Türkiye

The Fethiye-Babadağ stage, which featured a challenging climb, was completed on the third day of the 58th Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye (Tour of Türkiye).

Organized by the Turkish Cycling Federation under the auspices of the Presidency and with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the 104.1-kilometer Fethiye-Babadağ stage was held on the third day of the Tour of Türkiye.

On the 104.1-kilometer course starting in Fethiye, cyclists climbed approximately 1000 meters between the 50th and 68th kilometers. After descending to sea level, the athletes climbed back up to 1937 meters in the final 20 kilometers.

Cyclists reached the final 18 kilometers of the "Queen" stage in 2.5 hours, completing the difficult climbing section in over 1 hour. Alexey Lutsenko of Kazakhstan's Astana team finished the race in first place with a time of 3.34.17.

Ben Zwiehoff of Germany's Bora-Hansgrohe team came in second with a 12-second gap, while Colombian Harold Tejada from Astana finished third with a 27-second gap.

With this victory, Lutsenko closed the 24-second time gap with Jasper Philipsen of Belgium's Alpecin-Deceuninck team, the winner of the first two stages, and took the general classification lead.

HERE ARE THE JERSEY HOLDERS

In the 2023 Tour, the turquoise jersey worn by the general classification leader passed to Lutsenko.

While the green jersey for the sprint leader remains with Philipsen, the red jersey for the climbing leader also went to Lutsenko. Since Lutsenko will wear the turquoise jersey in tomorrow's stage, the red jersey will be worn by Zwiehoff.

The white jersey for the leader of the "Beauty of Türkiye" classification remained with Dutchman Wesley Mol, who races for Germany's Bike AID team.

News Source: 12punto