Britain’s Mark Cavendish tasted victory for the first time in more than three years when he headed a bunch sprint across the line at the Tour of Turkey.
The 35-year-old Deceuninck-QuickStep rider timed his push to perfection to pass Jasper Philipsen and Andre Greipel in the the final 100m of stage two in Konya.
It was Cavendish’s first win since February 2018 at the Dubai Tour and came just months after he feared his career might be over before securing a return to his former team.
His success followed a fourth-place finish in the opening stage on Sunday, and he leads the overall classification heading into stage three.
Cavendish’s success came amid a run of good form after he finished third in Scheldeprijs last week following his second at the GP Monsere.
An early break never looked likely to be decisive and the peloton reeled the remaining escapees in with around seven kilometres to go.
Scheldeprijs winner Philipsen led out the sprint 200m from the line, but it was Cavendish who prevailed to end his barren run.
PA
