San Luis Obispo, CA – 16th April 2010 – HTC-Columbia’s André Greipel claimed his tenth win of the season in the Tour of Turkey’s stage six from Fethiye to Finike on Friday, a victory that both strengthens his lead in the points competition and simultaneously reconfirms the German as the top sprinter of the race. Greipel took the victory in a bunch sprint after his HTC-Columbia teammates finally swept up the last survivors of a long-distance breakaway with less than a kilometre left to go. Overall leader Giovanni Visconti tried a late attack, but Greipel roared past the Italian for his fourth stage win in six days.

“To be honest I didn’t think that today was going to end in a sprint, it was so hilly in the first part of the stage, and then the roads were really undulating in the last part along the coast,” commented sports director Jan Schaffrath. “Finally, though, we managed to bring the break back in the nick of time. The whole team, particularly the younger riders, did an exceptionally good job today.

“The guys stayed together with Tejay [Van Garderen], our overall contender, on the final climb, with Gert Dockx riding very hard indeed, and then after we got over the top with about 35 guys in the front group, we started to set things up for André,” added Schaffrath. “Getting that break back was a little bit like a game of poker. It was complicated to calculate because there were so many little climbs. But we got it right and André’s got his fourth stage and tenth win of the season. He’s having a great week of racing here.”

Photo by: CorVos Pro