Mark Cavendish claims third Tour of Turkey win on stage seven

Mark Cavendish claimed his third win of this year’s Tour of Turkey and ninth of the season by sprinting to victory on stage seven on Saturday.

The Etixx – Quick-Step rider, who won stages one and two earlier in the week, once again proved himself to be the fastest man at the race by beating Andrea Piechele (Bardiani-CSF) into second place and Kristian Sbaragli (MTN-Qhubeka) into third in Izmir.

He had earlier avoided being dropped on a climb more than 10km long that summited 28km from the finish.

Cavendish said: "In terms of the sprint, this was probably my easiest win with a reduced field. We didn't have a lot of the pure sprinters there and we knew that.

“For me the biggest thing I take from today is the way the team stayed together. We did the climb together, straight away worked, and for me that is a bigger satisfaction than crossing the line first."

Croatia’s Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida) retained his 21-second lead of the race over second-placed Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polkowice).

The race ends on Sunday with a 121km eighth stage in Istanbul.

Stage seven result

1 Mark Cavendish (GB) Etixx – Quick-Step, 3:59:49

2 Andrea Piechele (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, same time

3 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) MTN-Qhubeka, st

4 Manuel Belletti (Ita) Southeast, st

5 Magnus Cort (Den) Orica-GreenEdge, st

General classification

1 Kristijan Durasek (Cro) Lampre-Merida, 28:21:23

2 Davide Rebellin (Ita) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, +21secs

3 Eduardo Sepulveda (Arg) Bretagne-Seche Environnement, +32

4 Jay McCarthy (Aus) Tinkoff-Saxo, +1:14

5 Alex Cano (Col) Team Colombia, +1:30