Retained the two jerseys, conquered the third: Team Polti Kometa dominates the Tour of Antalya

We remembered it in the race preview, we crowned it with a superb performance. The Tour of Antalya is one of the races that Team Polti Kometa is most fond of: it was the scene of the first successes in the Continental category, and it has been the scene of absolute dominance in these four days. Davide Piganzoli wears both magenta and orange jerseys, and Giovanni Lonardi wears yellow!

The final act of the Anatolian race, with the traditional start from the world’s largest aquarium-tunnel and finish in the same Cumhuriyet square as Friday, saw Piganzoli leading the chase to the breakaway, also taking the KOM jersey on the day’s climb, and then working again to try to close a subsequent attack by six riders and avoid dramatic reversals.

The attempted closure was unsuccessful, the stage victory was decided by a tight fugitives’ sprint that rewarded Hartthijs De Vries and Lonardi placed 9th, but what mattered for Polti Kometa was reducing the gap by just enough to maintain the leads.

A perfect picture described by sports director Giovanni Ellena: “After Davide’s second place on the uphill which also earned him success in climbers’ classification, Tudor and Uno X split the group and helped create a dangerous breakaway for us, both for the presence of Van den Bossche in the points competition and for the presence of Holter in the GC. Our guys kept their cool, rallied together, and reduced the gap, saving the bacon. A long and beautiful day.”

The super winner Piganzoli: “It wasn’t easy today, our opponents put in great efforts, but we found the strength and the right collaboration to achieve our goal. I’m very happy both for the personal success and for the results of the whole team!”

Lonardi‘s final remark: “The fundamental result was that of the team; we faced all the challenges this stage put in front of us and brought home this Tour of Antalya.”