Mark Cavendish of Etixx Quick Step has won the opening stage of the Tour Of Turkey.
A race which attracted some strong teams and some big names including Mark Cavendish who won four stages in this race last year and Andre Greipel of Lotto Soudal who has won nine stages was a 145km stage which started and finished in Alanya.
Mario Costa, Lluis Más, Adam Phelan, Alessandro Tonelli and Federico Zurlo formed the day's break and they were 2.30 ahead with 43kms left.
The gap started to drop as Zurlo took the Beauty Sprint after taking the King Of The Mountains and Sprints to give him all three jerseys and was down to 52 seconds with twenty four kilometres to go.
Six kilometres later, the leaders were caught and the riders started on the final lap of seventeen kilometres.
Astana were on the front on wetish roads ahead of British rider Adam Blythe for Orica GreenEdge as Etixx Quick Step and Lotto Soudal played a watching brief, ready to make their move.
It was messy as riders looked for their lead out men. Tinkoff Saxo led but the sprint was on. Greipel and Cavendish went and it was Cavendish who won in 3.17.58. Caleb Ewen was second, followed by Ruffoni, Modolo and Bos. Andre Greiel finished eighth.