Frank van den Broek, Andresen's Dutch teammate, retains the lead in the general classification. He is 4 seconds ahead of the Eritrean Merhawi Kudus (Terengganu) and 9 ahead of the Briton Paul Double (Polti-Kometa). Lander Loockx (TDT-Unibet) is 6th, 26 seconds behind the leader.
The Australian James Whelan (Q36.5) and the Eritrean Natnael Berhane (Beykoz Belediyesi Spor Türkiye) set off on an almost impossible mission at the forefront. The sprint teams allowed the duo to take up to 4 minutes of lead, but they constantly kept this gap under control.
The lead dwindled as the finish approached, and Berhane and Whelan were swallowed up by the peloton in the final 10 kilometers. 5 kilometers from the finish, the trains formed for the sprint. The 180 degree turn 2km from the end caused a small fall but the fastest in the peloton were in front.
Fabio Jakobsen failed to follow the wheel of Andresen who flew towards his 3rd victory of the week, and of his career at the age of 21. The Briton Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) experienced a mechanical problem which prevented him from competing in the sprint.
The Tour of Turkey will end on Saturday, at the end of the 8th and final stage run over 105.4 kilometers around Istanbul. If the profile of the last day is relatively non-threatening, the last 600 meters of the race will be uphill at 5.7%. Frank van den Broek is therefore not yet sure of adding his name to the winners of the event, to succeed the Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko.
