Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck) slipped into the breakaway after the intermediate sprint won by Timothy Dupont (Tarteletto-Isorex). Five men climbed to the front after around forty kilometers, and the group suffered from the first slopes of the day, 40 kilometers from the finish.
Two members of the breakaway were initially unhooked, while the peloton launched the chase. Rickaert gave up at the foot of Spil Dagi, the final climb (14 km at 7.1%) at the top of which the finish would be judged. The Ethiopian Negasi Haylu Abreha (Q36.5) was the last representative of the breakaway to be caught, while the Caja Rural-Seguros RGA set the pace.
Merhawi Kudus took off in the last 3 kilometers, then caught by Double and Van den Broek. The latter dominated the final, while Loockx crossed the line at 16 seconds, in 7th position.
On Saturday, the sprinters will be able to shine again during the 7th stage which will take the peloton from Cesme to Izmir over 125.4 kilometers. The next day, the 8th stage closed the Tour of Türkiye in Istanbul.
Last year, Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko won the general classification while the race was contested at the end of the season, in October. Jasper Philipsen then won four of the eight stages.
