Sam Bennett's efforts to take his first victory of the season at the Tour of Turkey today were derailed by a mishap in the sprint. The Irish rider bumped one of his rivals, which caused his chain to slip off.
That saw the Bora-hansgrohe rider slip out of contention. He drifted back from the front and out of the top 10 after a great lead-out from Dutch team mate Danny van Poppel.
The finale of today's stage 5 - after 186km of racing into Ayvalık - was marred by a nasty crash. Jasper Philipsen was bumped towards the barriers on his left. That resulted in one of his own Alpecin Fenix team mates being sent crashing against the barriers and onto the tarmac at speed, bringing down other riders in the process.
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The stage victory was taken by Sam Welsford (Team DSM) - an Australian track to road convert - from Philipsen and Arvid de Kleijn (Human Powered Health).
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It was 3rd placed de Kleijn that Bennett had a coming together with in the sprint when they shouldered each other. While the Irish rider was left stricken with a slipped chain and drifting backwards as the line approached, the Dutch cyclist had so such problems and sprinted onto the podium.
The race lead was retained by Eduardo Sepúlveda (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli), the Argentine who won yesterday's stage 4 summit finish. With three stages remaining, he has a 14 second advantage over Patrick Bevin (Israel-Premier Tech), with Jay Vine (Alpecin Fenix) in 3rd at 25 seconds.
