Cycling: Patrick Bevin wins Tour of Turkey after final stage cancelled

Patrick Bevin celebrates winning the Tour of Turkey. Photo / Getty

It wasn't the way he wanted to seal the biggest win of his career, but Kiwi cyclist Patrick Bevin has claimed the overall title at the Tour of Turkey.

Bevin stormed into the race lead after winning stage seven on Saturday night, and sealed victory in bizarre fashion when stage eight was cancelled after just 25 kilometres of racing.

The 31-year-old was always likely to retain the leader's jersey after his brilliant stage win on the penultimate stage, but he admitted nerves before the final day, having lost a similar chance at victory on the last stage at the Tour Down Under in 2019.

Instead, he didn't have to navigate all 137.8 kilometres of the final stage in Istanbul - largely flat but featuring four ascents of an 800 metre climb at an average gradient of 7.4 per cent - with heavy rain falling as the race began, causing crashes in combination with high winds.

After 25 kilometres, the riders asked for the race to be neutralised due to unsafe conditions, and the final stage was scrapped, leaving Bevin as the overall victor.

"Everyone is a little bit disappointed about cancelling the stage, it would have been great to race through such a beautiful city, but it was an important decision to make for the safety of the riders," Bevin said.

"I don't think I've ever seen roads so slippery. It's just unfortunate we suddenly got so much rain on the city roads. It made the conditions unraceable. The bunch was united and the feeling that there was no safe way to race.

"In the first downhill there was a large crash at low speed - it was obvious that the race wasn't going to go ahead so riders came together."

Patrick Bevin wins the Tour of Turkey! Due to terrible weather conditions, the final stage in Istanbul has been canceled. Paddy therefore claims the first GC-victory in his career! 🥳#YallaIPT #AllInForBevin #TUR2022 pic.twitter.com/rXbES2zNhk

— Israel – Premier Tech (@IsraelPremTech) April 17, 2022

It's a fantastic reward for a rider who has promised so much in recent years, only be to denied a top result by a combination of bad luck and injury.

"I've had a lot of second places in my career, so to take a stage win yesterday and the GC today is really nice," Bevin said. "I'll take some great memories from here - the team we had here has been fighting every day. It's fantastic to give this back to the guys."

Bevin's triumph is New Zealand's biggest stage-race title since George Bennett won the Tour of California in 2017, and it was deserved after a dominating performance in stage seven.

Coming into the stage second overall, 11 seconds behind leader Eduardo Sepulveda, it was Bevin's big opportunity to strike a blow, with two tricky climbs on the agenda.

The first, a 7.7 kilometre climb at an average gradient of 5.1 per cent, softened up the legs of his rivals, and on the final climb, a seven kilometre effort at 4.2 per cent, Bevin struck.

With the climb having several steep gradients, Bevin chose that time to attack, set up expertly by his Israel-Premier Tech teammates, including 21-year-old fellow Kiwi Corbin Strong, who claimed an impressive ninth on the stage and finished 15th overall.

After riding 30 kilometres alongside Jay Vine and Nicolas Edet - the only riders strong enough to hang with Bevin - Bevin attacked in the final kilometre to win the stage and earn a 20-second buffer over Vine in the general classification and 40 seconds over Sepulveda in third.

The stage win was his first victory since 2019, when he stunned the best sprinters in the world to win a finish at the Tour Down Under, before his following seasons became a frustrating mix of close calls and injuries.

That continued into 2022 when he broke his collarbone in just his second raceday of the season, but the 31-year-old is now back to his best, and overall victory at the Tour of Turkey, while a second-tier race, goes down as his best result.