Mark Cavendish retained his leaders jersey with his second successive victory on the second stage of the 50th Tour Of Turkey.
Mark Cavendish was in the blue leaders jersey and Marc De Maar in the red King Of The Mountains jersey for this second stage from Alanya to Kemer of 172kms.
Nicola Boem of Bardiani, Pawel Charucki of CCC Polesat, Martijn Verschoor of Novodisk, Matteo Pozzo of Neri Sottol & Ahmet Orken of Torkugot in the day's break and had got four minutes clear but were 1.38 clear with 78kms remaining.
Pozzo had taken the first sprint of three plus a Beauty Sprint on a pan flat stage of no climbs and was in the lead group which was now 2.13 ahead with 57kms on another sunny pleasant day.
Six kilometres later and Lotto had put the hammer down and brought the five escapers to within 36 seconds.
Charucki dropped behind the breakaway as the pace from the peloton dropped and the four out front were left with a 1.27 lead with 47kms to go.
Pozzo took the second sprint with forty kilometres to go to add five points to his tally ahead of Verschoor.
The pressure on the escapers returned and for the final twenty kilometres of the stage, the gap to the front four was sixteen seconds.
With fourteen kilometres to go, the quartet were bridged by the peloton who were now sizing themselves up for the fiinal sprint a kilometre which Gianni Meersman won with Mark Cavendish taking a single point.
The business end of the stage saw the teams lined up down the road with Bardiani, Cannondale and Omega Pharma Quick Step all working on the front.
With three kilometres to go, Lotto, working for Andrei Greipel, joined the fray in what was a drag race to the finish line.
Belkin were on the front with 500ms to go but Mark Cavendish was well placed and led out by Mark Renshaw, the British Champion surged away to win in 3.50.18 ahead of Chicchi, Bonifazio, Boeckmans and Lasca.
Cavendish leads the race from Bonifazio and Bos on positional placings as the riders have the same time.
Cavendish said to the Tour Of Turkey: "It was really nice to get a second stage in as many days. Today, it was a hard sprint, with a head wind on big roads. But Omega Pharma Quick Step did an incredible job, a textbook job to keep me from the wind, to keep the break down. In the last ten kilometres, Kevin and Petr were riding strong until the five kilometres. Gianni took over until 2 km. Then it was Iljo and Geert Steegmans, Alessandro Petacchi and Mark Renshaw who led me out. They had to go deeper to do that because of the head wind so I’m super-happy I could win.
"Tomorrow is just about getting through. I won’t be able to get a third win. We came here with a dominantly sprint team, it was a tough day for the guys today after yesterday. We’ll try to get through as best as possible. There’s no way I can try to defend the jersey. But it’ll be an exciting stage for the race and for the fans."