The 3rd and queen stage of the Tour of Turkey saw MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung take the racing to the rest of the peloton. Songezo Jim and Youcef Reguigui both went on the attack and Serge Pauwels would finish 5th at the line.
It was after 25km of racing that Songezo went clear with 4 other riders. Building up a lead of 4 minutes, the attackers then hit the first of the 2 cat 1 climbs for the day. Songezo was clearly one of the strongest as he, Juan Valencia (Colombia) and Jose Goncalves (Caja-Rural) pushed clear. The peloton had reduced the gap drastically on the big climb though and 7 riders jumped across to the 3 leaders.
Youcef was part of the 7 attackers who bridged to the lead with just 35km to go. Our Algerian star then upped the ante and rode away with Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Jelle Wallays (Topsport-Vlaanderen) while the peloton reeled in the chasers. Youcef and co. would then hold on to a 30″ lead for the next 20km as Astana and CCC Sprandi were forced to chase.
The leading trio were caught at the foot of the final cat 1 climb. An early surge in the pace saw the main group whittled down to just a handful of riders on the 10km climb. Eventual stage winner, Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi) followed an attack by Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida) with 7km to go and the 2 would ride off to decide the stage. Behind them the main group blew to pieces on the final climb and Serge was strong enough to hold on for 5th on the stage, putting him 5th on GC as well. Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne-Seche) was the rider in 3rd place on the stage.
Serge Pauwels – Rider
JP Heynderickx – Sport Director
Rebellin 'winning' at 43......ha ha good one.