Elia Viviani achieved his first victory of the year at the Tour of Turkey, racing to a sprint finish win in stage 7 in Çeşme. This win is significant for Viviani, as it marks his first win since the Tour of Guangxi in 2023. He emphasized the opportunity given to him by Lotto's Stéphane Heulot and his desire to mentor younger team members in a competitive cycling environment. Despite crashes and a tough finale, Viviani clinched the win over Alexander Kristoff and Davide Persico, while race leader Wout Poels maintained his overall lead in the tour.
"I always think I can still have it. Finally, has everyone knows, [Lotto boss] Stéphane Heulot gave me this chance and this is how I want to pay [him back]."
"I'm an experienced guy in a really young team, and the first thing is that I want them to learn from me, from Jasper [De Buyst], from these kind of guys. They can learn resilience, to continue believing in this modern cycling where everyone knows it's difficult to take a win, so I'm really happy."
The day's breakaway tried to work together to go to the finish, and they did make it a long way into the stage, but the last escapee was finally caught with just under 7km to go.
After several tough stages, Saturday's profile offered up a chance for the sprinters, but that didn't stop some opportunists from trying to spoil the sprinters' fun and take advantage of some win in the finale.
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