ITALY'S MARECZKO BEATS GREIPEL IN HEAD WIND AT KEMER
GC unchanged: Bilbao (CJR) leades on eve of mountain stage to Elmalı

Kemer, Thursday 28 April – Jakub Mareczko (Southeast – Venezuela) has won stage 5, the Salcano Alanya - Kemer Stage (189.3 km), of the 52nd Presidential Tour of Turkey. Assisted by his team-mate Manuel Belletti, Mareczko won the final bunch sprint into a block head wind, ahead of Tuesday's winner André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and Belletti himself. 

To download full official results, please click here.

(Click through for Hi Res. Photo credit: Tour of Turkey/Brian Hodes)

Stage 5 result
1. Jakub Mareczko (Southeast – Venezuela), 189.3 km in 4h20'28", ave. 43.61km/h
2. André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) in s.t.
3. Manuel Belletti (Southeast – Venezuela), in s.t.

GC standings post-Stage 5
1. Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA)
2. José Gonçalves (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA) @ 5”
3. David Arroyo (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA) @ 13”

(Click through for Hi Res. Photo credit: Tour of Turkey/Brian Hodes)

The Jerseys
SporToto Turquoise Jersey (Race leader): Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA) 
Turkish Airlines Red Jersey (Mountains): Rémy Di Gregorio (Delko Marseille Provence KTM)
Vestel White Jersey (Beauties of Turkey Sprints): Lluís Mas (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA)
Salcano Green Jersey (Sprints): Alberto Cecchin (Team Roth)

RIDER COMMENTS:
SporToto Turquoise Jersey (Race leader) Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA): "I don't mind coming to the press conference every night. I practice my English here, so it's OK! Having said that, it's been a long day, we tried to do the same as yesterday. We knew it would be a hard stage because of the wind, so we rode at the front. Without taking too many risks, we ended the stage with no problems, so it's OK for us. 
"Two days have gone by and we have been able to control the race with wasting too much energy, so we can say that we are in a good position to keep the race lead tomorrow at least, so maybe I am more confident now that I was. The team looks strong, and I think we can make a good race tomorrow. Lampre, Astana and CCC look like the most dangerous teams climbing, especially the Astana guy who is 4th now [Nikita Stalnov]. We have to keep him near all the time. I think we have a great climbing team so we are goping to control the race and try to go with al the group in the last climb, and then our strength will give us the result. I think we are in a good position, the first 3 in GC, so I think we can be conservative, and let the other teams work.
"I have the jersey, so I'm going to be the last man, if everything goes OK, but José David and me are very near together, so in any move, if we have to go to the front and follow a dangerous rider, any of us can take the lead at the end of the stage.

(Click through for Hi Res. Photo credit: Tour of Turkey/Brian Hodes)

Stage winner Jakub Mareczko (Southeast - Venezuela): “Yesterday, I went a bit early and I was already out of contention with 500m to go. Today my team rode from the start and in the finale they piloted me, especially Belletti. The final kilometre was complicated because the pace fell, and Belletti found himself next to me with 400m to go. I went passed him and rode my sprint. But he piloted me into the final 500m. 
“Up to now, this year, except in Belgium I have performed at every race, and I hope it continues like this all the way through the season. I had a throat inflammation before coming here, so I was at home for a week. My state of form is not great. I'm here refining my form to be competitive at the Giro.
“Objective is to get a good result, a placing, in a sprint or two. A podium would be a good result. I don't want to ask for too much in my first GT. I still don't know what my condition is. The standard will be higher at the Giro, with all the WT teams there, so certainly it'll be harder to get a result there, but that's my goal.”

Second placed André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal): “My team did a really good job today. They gave me a good lead out. They timed it right. But racing against the wind wasn’t easy at all. The sprint happened to be too long. I lost the momentum a bit. Mareczko was strong and fast. I couldn’t go past him.”

Third placed Manuel Belletti (Southeast - Venezuela): “This is a good outcome. Well, first and third is more than good! We had planned that Mareczko would stay on my wheel before sprinting. It was a very convincing sprint by him. Our team rode at perfection today. We took our responsibilities from the start and I completed the result with this fourth place. It’s a great satisfaction as I came to Turkey in the unknown one month after breaking my scaphoid in Belgium. Now I’m focused on the second last stage finishing in Marmaris. I’ve won there before [in 2011] and I’d like to double up.”

Turkish Airlines Red Jersey (Mountains): Rémy Di Gregorio (Delko Marseille Provence KTM): “The red jersey wasn’t a concern today but it’ll be tomorrow. It’ll all depend on the racing conditions. My priority might become the stage win rather than the King of the Mountains competition. Obviously there are two strong riders in the same team [Przemyslaw Niemiec and Ilia Koshevoy with Lampre-Merida] and we as a team aren’t complete with only five riders in the race.”

Vestel White Jersey (Beauties of Turkey Sprints): Lluís Mas (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA): “When the breakaway was formed, I didn’t look at who was going for it, if there was anyone likely to threaten my lead in the Beauties of Turkey competition because my job is to stay with Pello [Bilbao]. The whole team is only focused on the overall classification. Everything else comes second. If any day I can sprint for the Beauties of Turkey competition, I’ll go for it but it’s not a priority. It’s been sort of an easy day today because no one in the breakaway was dangerous on GC so we had to put only one rider at the front of the peloton. Lotto-Soudal and us, we were able to control and not lose any power before tomorrow’s stage, which is the most important one."

How it happened
After the roll out on schedule at 10:15 a.m., and a neutralised section of 5 kilometres, the peloton, 105 riders strong, passed km 0 at 10:25 a.m. Two riders did not start: 54 Alex Diniz (FSC) and 142 Mustafa Sayar (TRK).

There were attacks from the flag. After 10 minutes of continuous cat and mouse, a trio of riders established a small lead. They were:
68 Kazushige Kuboki (NIP)
125 Raphael Hammerschmid (HAC)
144 Muhammet Atalay (TRK)

Those three were soon joined by 
84 Lucas Gaday (ROT)
153 Giovanni Pedretti (UNI)

But those five kept their lead for no longer than a few minutes, before they were reabsorbed into the group, travelling at speed.

Soon afterwards, still within the first 30 minutes of racing, a group of six established a small lead and, this time, it stuck. The six were as follows:

66 Riccardo Stacchiotti (NIP)
94 Michal Podlaski (VAT)
104 Sergis Kaspars (ALB)
136 Peter Schulting (PVC)
14 Ahmed Akdilek (TRK)
156 Enrico Salvador (UNI)

They led by 1'30” after 20km, 1'45” at 22km and 1'54” at 39km.

After speeding past some of the stage's many points of great natural and historical beauty – the Manavgat Waterfall (km 58.3 - 139 km to go), ancient Side (km 62.3 - 127.0 km to go), the Eurymedon Bridge (Koprupazar) (km 85 - 104.3 km to go), and the remarkable colosseum at Aspendos (km 90.0 - 99.3 km to go), the six leaders approached the first intermediate sprint of the day, at km 99.8.

Intermediate sprint: km 99.8 
1. (5 pts) Riccardo Stacchiotti (NIP)
2. (3 pts) Enrico Salvador (UNI)
3. (1 pts) Sergis Kaspars (ALB)

The six led the main peloton by 2'10”  at ths point. 

The riders passed more sites of profound cultural interest at Sillyon (km 116.5 - 72.8 km to go - founded, along with Side and Aspendos, by the seers Mopsos, Calchas and Amphilochus after the Trojan War) and Perge (km 117.7 - 71.6 km to go), not to mention Antalya's Konyaaltı Beach, before the Beauties of Turkey sprint of the day at km 120.4, which finished as follows:

Beauties of Turkey sprint: Km 120.4
1. (5 pts) Riccardo Stacchiotti (NIP)
2. (3 pts) Sergis Kaspars (ALB)
3. (1 pt) Peter Schulting (PVC)

The sextet led the peloton by 1'40” at this point, as the helicopter shots lingered on the ruins at stunning Perge. 

With 50 km to go, and Xu Gang leading the chase for Lampre – Merida and yesterday's stage winner Sacha Modolo, the advantage of the leaders was 1'29”. The sextet bagn to loose a little cohesion with 47.5km to go, on a road bridge, where Michal Podlaski (VAT) launched a little attack, and the Latvian rider Sergis Kaspars (ALB) was dropped, leaving five riders in the lead. 

With 40.7 km to go, and the peloton strung out in Antalya, André Greipel pulled over to the side of the road. The five breakaway riders, working hard at this point, extended their lead to 2' with 38km to go, and 2'12” 2.5kms later. The wind was blowing off the sea, from the right hand side. 

Intermediate sprint: km 156.4
1. (5 pts) Enrico Salvador (UNI)
2. (3 pts) Ahmed Akdilek (TRK)
3. (1 pts) Riccardo Stacchiotti (NIP)

At this point, the quintet led the peloton by 2'05”.

With 22.5 km to go, and Lotto Belisol leading the peloton, the breakaway still led by 2'.

The gap was 1'30” with 18.7 km to go, and 1' with 15.3 km to go. With 9 km to go, the breakaway riders were caught by the bunch. with the exception of Enrico Salvador (UNI) and Peter Schulting (PVC), who persisted.  Enrico Salvador (UNI) was brought back with 5 km to go, and Peter Schulting (PVC) was caught 500m later.

The final sprint, into a headwind, was won by Jakub Mareczko (Southeast - Venezuela).